


Decadent Habits

by Darkenning, OverMaster, Shadow_Crystal_Mage



Series: The Darkenned World [1]
Category: Mahou Sensei Negima!, Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei
Genre: Cousin Incest, Everyone Is Related And Everything Hurts, F/F, F/M, Group Sex, M/M, Many Joke Crossovers In The Last Chapter, Mildly Dubious Consent, Multi, Parent/Child Incest, Sibling Incest, Teacher-Student Relationship, Throws Canon Out The Window And Never Looks Back, Too Many Pairings For The Relationships Section
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-10
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-02-20 12:11:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 40
Words: 198,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2428247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkenning/pseuds/Darkenning, https://archiveofourown.org/users/OverMaster/pseuds/OverMaster, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadow_Crystal_Mage/pseuds/Shadow_Crystal_Mage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"When love is mutual, it brings joy. And that is never wrong. No matter what." Inspired by and incorporating OverMaster's vignette of the same title.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Arika

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Negima. As my name is not Akamatsu Ken, that should be obvious. Especial thanks to OverMaster for permission to use a situation from "More Than Fifty-Four Negi and Chisame Threesomes" as both the inspiration for this tale and the source of its title.

"There's something I have to ask you," Negi said hesitantly. He was well aware that that was starting this conversation off in what had to be one of the worst of all possible ways.

"Then ask," replied Arika, in the same calm, unchanging tone that she nearly always used.

For a moment, he considered Arika Anarchia Entheofushia, last queen of the lost land of Ostia, Queen of Calamity. His mother. A woman only slightly taller than the tallest of his students, with long blonde hair just a touch lighter than Ayaka Yukihiro's, and now, incredibly, seated seiza on the other side of the coffee table, in a skirt and sweater borrowed from Shizuna-sensei, both of which were too big for her. His mother.

Seeking clues to the whereabouts of his father, he had found his mother, rescued her, and brought her back to the academy. And here she was.

He had never permitted himself to wonder what had happened to her. Nekane-neechan had been so gentle and so kind that he could not imagine hurting her by saying that he wanted something else, a presence other than hers. And what had happened when he began to wonder what had become of his father had further soured him on such speculations.

He was so glad that Asuna-san and Konoka-san had both withdrawn to give the two of them this time together in their room, and -

"I'm waiting for that question," Arika interjected.

"Oh, my apologies. I was trying to think of the best way to put this," Negi temporized, as he had been doing no such thing.

"That you show such concern for what you would say is an admirable quality," Arika replied, with a slight shake of her head. "Please do not apologize for such qualities."

"Yes. Um. Thank you. Ah. You ... know that I have made many pacts with my students," he said, considering as he did so that he was moving from bad to worse.

"Yes," she answered. "Since I am given to understand that you wish to be like that person who was your father, you should be congratulated for achieving that goal, in part, by following in his footsteps in that manner." Just what she thought of that notion was not apparent from either her face, her tone, or her words.

Negi fought panic. Despite years of teaching girls, despite training by and alongside them, he was no closer to having an understanding of the way that their moods could change in an instant. And this girl, this woman, kept her tells so controlled as to render the most sanguine of his companions an open book by comparison. And he wanted to hurt her even less, he abruptly realized, than he had wanted to hurt Nekane-neechan.

"I ... I believe that I am very, very close to one of them. That there is one of them whom I want to be my true partner, in all ways. And ... more than that, I believe ... that I care about her, as that person who was my father, cared about you. And, even more than that, I believe that she cares about me, as you cared about him." He was blushing, fairly sure that his skin resembled his hair.

"I see. But I do not -" Arika began.

"I need to know if Asuna-san is your sister," Negi said in a rush.

"Ah," she said. Just that, and nothing else.

Negi stared at the tea set on the table between them. The gleam of its silver did nothing to settle his nerves, but he could not meet his mother's gaze as she considered his question.

Then, with an intake of breath that was too abbreviated to be called a sigh, she answered. "In a sense, she is."

Confused, he lifted his head. "In a sense?"

"In the sense that she is also the daughter of Alladia Autarkia Entheofushia, that person who was my father, yes, she is my sister. But not in other senses."

Negi sighed. Not what he had hoped for. But he had needed to know the truth. "I see," he said sadly. "She was the daughter of one of his mistresses." He could not think of that person as his grandfather, knowing of his true role in the tragedy that had wreaked -

"I was her mother," Arika said.

\- such havoc ...

Slowly, he felt the red in his face go away, in such a way that he thought it would never return. "What?" he asked, not recognizing the sound of his voice.

"I was her mother," his mother repeated. "I had just lately seen my twelfth year, as reckoned by the old world, when my father decided to create a child who possessed the power of Magic Cancel. He came to me several times, and then, in the normal course of events, I was delivered of a daughter. She was taken away from me, I was told what her name would be, and I did not see her again until she was also present when you rescued me from my captivity."

Negi's jaw worked, but he made no sound. His eyes widened, but he could not see.

Silently, Arika took up her tea cup and sipped.

That gesture was the last straw, and Negi began to weep. "Oh," he said, through his sobs. "Oh, this is ... I had thought that I had seen the worst, but this is ... oh, mother, how could he ... oh, how can I -"

She crossed the distance between them in a heartbeat, wrapping one arm around him While the other reached up to pull his hands away from where they clutched his face, so that they could face each other He could see the stoic expression gone, gone utterly, and what replaced it was something that he could not understand in the slightest as she mouthed a single word. "No."

"What?" he asked again, through tears.

"No," his mother repeated. "I will not have you, of all people, thinking of me as a victim. I am no one's victim, my son. What I have done with my life is done by my own choices. Yes, my father ended my innocence. But it was my choice to continue living afterwards. That is the only choice we have, sometimes, whether to live with the consequences of what has happened or to die and escape them. I have chosen to live."

"Okaasama," he said, softly and with wonder. It was the first time he had ever called her that.

Incredibly, she blushed.

"Do ... do you hate Asuna-san? Is this why you haven't told her about any of this?" he asked.

"Why would I hate her?" Arika asked, sounding genuinely confused. "She is my child, as precious to me as you are. And she is the most important person to you, and so even more dear to me."

"But -"

"I do not hate anyone, my son. Hatred is pointless. I do not even hate that person who was my father, or the memory of him." Her eyes went distant. "What I feel is a sorrow, of sorts. Afterwards, we were no closer than we had been before that. All that I was, to him, was a vessel for his ambitions. And I was and am saddened that that was all he cared about, when I cared for him."

"Oh," Negi said, for that was all that he could think to say.

She nodded, then. "You were afraid, weren't you, that this would ruin your partnership, and your other feelings, with Asuna? Folly. I abandoned you, for reasons that I thought were good, perhaps, but I forfeited any right to approve or disapprove of what you do with your life when I did so. But even if I did have that right, I would still approve of what you feel for her."

He found his voice again. "But she is my -" Then once more lost it, as he struggled to find the word to call Asuna. Sister? Aunt? Sister-aunt?

"She is the person you care about most in all this world," Airka suggested, caressing his hair. "If you are separated from her, not a day will pass when you do not think of her. As for the rest ... what of it? As I told you, I loved my father. He did not love me, and so it brought sorrow. But when love is mutual, it brings joy. And that is never wrong. No matter what."

Again, she caressed his hair ... lingeringly, this time. "You are about twelve years old, now, aren't you?" she asked softly.

"Uh ... no, I'm, I'm eleven," Negi answered hesitantly.

"I don't think so," Arika disagreed. "That person who was your father's stalker has told me about the days you spent in her mansion, where time passes more swiftly than it does here in the old world. And you spent months in the new world that passed in days here, too. You are older than you know, my son."

Once again, she crossed the distance between them, this time moving so that their faces had no distance at all, so that their noses and lips touched. Her kiss was not like the ones he'd had from his students, or even the forceful, passionate kiss of his Master. It was like the kiss Princess Theodora had given him when they sealed their pact - hungry, searching.

And then she pulled back. "My son," she said, not breathlessly but clearly. "You must decide. If you want, I will teach you all that I know of the pleasures men and women can give each other. Or you can keep your innocence and learn these things at another time, with someone else. I will love you regardless. But I must tell you that I have never wanted anything as much as I want this, to be with the one who is the perfect combination of myself and the one I love most in all of time and space. To have this gift would make me extremely happy. Well, boya? What's it going to be? Yes or no?"

A moment later, Negi stammered something that she took for a yes, and their lips crashed together again.

He wore a belt and suspenders. It was probably proof of how cautious and prepared for anything he was. At the moment, though, Arika was only concerned with the belt, gently pulling its loose end out of the loops on the pants so as to undo the buckle. She did this with her left hand. Her right was occupied with pulling the right sleeve of her own sweater back so as to get her elbow out of it, so that she could pull her arm the rest of the way free, then lift it up and over her head. This exposed her breasts, unsupported by a bra, to Negi's eyes for the first time since he'd been weaned.

His mouth watered.

The belt opened, it was trivial for the left hand to then unbutton the button, then unzip the zipper beneath it. She paused, then, to look levelly into her son's eyes. "Negi," she said, using his proper name to address him for the first time in their acquaintance. "I can tell that you are very excited. But I will not have it that you become ... too excited, too quickly. So you must control yourself. Control your reactions. Are you ready to do that?"

Another sound taken for yes, and she leaned forward to press her nipple to his mouth, cradling his head with one hand while the other reached down to carress the strange hardness through his boxers. And abruptly he understood what she had meant. With every bit of willpower that had kept him from crying out from the pain of his injuries on other days, he fought against the reaction he did not fully comprehend, but which he knew would make her unhappy, and so he fought and held and held.

"Good," she said, nudging him over to the other breast as she stopped caressing the front of the boxers, and pulled their elastic back and down, and control, control, control as the fingers of her hand wrapped around that hardness, first tightly, then more loosely, then shifting up and down and up and down.

"My son," his mother said, "you have done well. So when I do what I do next, you may let go. All right?" She pulled back, pulling his mouth away from her breasts, paying no heed to his groan. Not even she could take this sound for yes, but it mattered little at this point, as she bent down and took him in her mouth.

And there was a great unleashing.

She waited until his ejaculations finished, then swallowed, pulled back, licked her lips, cleared her throat, and pulled the elastic of his boxers back up to cover the wilted hardness. Then, and only then, did she look down on his stunned face with a gentle smile, and say, "Well done."

"Th-th-th-," replied Negi.

"You've had the practicum. Now for some theory," Arika continued. "Proper terminology is important. In this, you must be sure not to refer to this -" Again, she gently pressed a finger to the front of his boxers. "- as anything other than a cock. Not a penis, not a manhood, certainly not a hardness. It is a cock."

She stood up from where she had been leaning on the floor, and unhooking the sinches that had kept her borrowed skirt tight around the waist, so that it dropped to the floor around her bare feet. "And this," she said, displaying the nakedness that should have been covered by panties, "must be called a cunt. It is my cunt. It is the cunt from whence you came. It is the cunt into which you will soon come again."

"Ahhhh," said Negi, eyes wider if possible. So like his father, losing language at times like this.

"No, not immediately. That's enough for the first lesson. I think we could both stand a nap, now ..."

Much later, when Asuna finally came back to the dorm room and found it apparently, she checked on Negi's nook first, as was her invariant custom. It only took a moment for her to realize where he was when she saw he wasn't there, and with a mild groan, she turned to look at her bed. As expected, he had crawled in beside his mother and was cradled up with her, her clothes - she had gone from Shizuna-sensei's sweater to a spare pair of Asuna's own pyjamas - somewhat disarranged.

Typical, Asuna thought ... and then, for no reason she understood, felt tears rolling down her face.

She was sure that she made no noise, but Arika came gradually awake as she watched, and with the hand which wasn't cradling Negi so that his head rested against her breasts, made a gesture which most people would have read as 'come hither'.

Asuna, being Asuna and thus Asuna, misread the gesture, blushed, and ducked down to hide in Konoka's bed. It wouldn't be the first time she'd slept there, after all, and Konoka and Setsuna would probably be out all night, and this was more comfortable, and why wouldn't the tears stop coming?

Above, Arika mastered her disappointment. It was an act that she was used to. But there would be time. Her daughter-sister would join with her and her son, eventually, and her shattered family would once more become whole. And perhaps, she thought wantonly, it would even grow. And so she drifted to sleep with dreams of her grandchildren/nieces-and-nephews and grandchildren/children dancing through her thoughts.

**Next:** Setsuna


	2. Setsuna

_Deep breaths. Don't panic._ The litany resounded through Setsuna's mind, along with a voice that sounded vaguely like Chisame's wondering why, when she faced demons and monsters and Tsukuyomi without qualm, the thought of talking to Eishun-sama, who had always been genial and kind to her sent her into a tizzy. _Here's a thought, shut up imaginary Chisame-san who is possibly more annoying than real Chisame-san._

_Deep breaths. Don't panic._

The door slid open, and Eishu-sama, resplendent in his robes, entered and bowed politely as Setsuna bolted up to stand and answer his bow. "Please forgive my tardiness, that kept you waiting," he said.

"No, no, not at all, I should have anticipated that you would not be able to see me at once," Setsuna answered, certain that she sounded like a frantic idiot. _Deep breaths. Don't panic._

"The fault is mine, really," Eishun said as he went around the table and sat down, gesturing for Setsuna to do the same.

Setsuna wanted to protest, but he left her no real opening to do so. "I've said it before, but thank you once again for always protecting our Konoka. I am very grateful that you defended her in the months you spent in the Magical World. You have my profoundest thanks."

 _I abandoned her. For weeks I didn't know if she was alive or dead. I am a failure as a protector. You should not thank me._ "Konoka-ojousama is becoming a mighty wizard," she said, instead of these truths. "She protects all of us, as much as we protect her."

"Yes, I have heard that," Eishun said, and then looking directly at her, in an odd tone, "I am very proud of my daughter, Setsuna-kun. Very proud."

_He knows. He knows and he does not approve. Of course he does not approve, I am an ugly disgusting half-breed freak whose feelings are utterly impure and -_

"Setsuna-kun. I am proud ... of ..." Eishun paused, as she stared at him, wondering what he was saying with such confusion as to break her train of thought.

"Setsuna-kun," Eishun began again. "What do you know of your family?"

"Eh?" she asked. She knew little. The hanyou who had raised her, if you could call it that, had simply told her that her father had been a human who seduced and abandoned her mother, who died giving birth to the wretched child that she was. They had given her the name Sakurazaki. She assumed that was her father's name.

Eishun saw her confusion, and apparently decided to increase it with a non-sequitur. "You are aware, I hope, that I married into the Konoe family, and was adopted and given their family name?"

"Yes," Setsuna answered, now bewildered. "You were born a member of the Aoyama clan."

"Yes," he said. "Born to a daughter of the Aoyama clan. Who married, then divorced, a man named ... Sakurazaki."

_What._

"Yes," Eishun said at last. "Yes, you understand now."

"No," Setsuna said at last. "No, I do not."

His stoic front collapsed, and he bent his head low over the table. "Forgive me, Setsuna-kun. Forgive this old fool. I should not have left your mother. But the match between myself and Konoka's mother was made when we were only children, and ... I meant to break it, but then learned that she was sickly, and in need of care, and I thought that I could take a few years ... but there was no time. And then you were given to my cousins, and ... forgive me, Setsuna-kun."

"No," she repeated. "No, this can't be."

"It is."

"But ... but I love Kono-chan," she wimpered.

He risked a look up. "But that is a good thing. You should love your sister."

"I _love_ Kono-chan!" she shouted.

Understanding dawned. "Oh," he said faintly. "Ah. Does she -"

"Yes! I think - yes," Setsuna answered, covering her eyes with her hands.

For a while, only silence filled the room.

Then Eishun began to speak again. "Setsuna-kun," he said. "Before ... before I knew your mother, or Konoka's mother ... there was another. And, for a number of reasons, I ... feared what people would say if they knew about my relationship with that person. But one of the people we knew found out, and all that she said, all that she said was ... 'when love is mutual, it brings joy, and nothing else matters.' Perhaps I should have heeded that person's counsel, for eventually this secret love died ... and perhaps it need not have done so. Perhaps you can be wiser than your foolish father.

"I am proud of my daughter," he continued, when she made no response. "I am proud ... of both of my daughters."

She still couldn't bring herself to say anything. With incredible rudeness, she reeled back, came to her feet, and stumbled out through the door of the room.

She didn't bother to open it first.

Eventually, after a long interval in which Setsuna was only vaguely aware of her surroundings, she realized that someone was standing in front of her and shouting her name. She blinked.

"Secchan!" Konoka cried once again. They were in the room which had been given to them for their use. Konoka stood before her, looking up at her in clear concern.

"Ah!" she gasped. "Forgive me, ojousama."

"What did he say?" nervously asked the girl whom she loved far, far more than life itself, which wasn't really saying all that much. "What did daddy say to make you space out like this?"

"Ah ... well ..." she temporized.

"Did he say that he doesn't want us to be together? Is that it?"

"... no," Setsuna answered weakly. But truthfully.

And for her honesty, earned the gradual spread across Konoka's face of the smile that made her heart race like nothing else could. "Then ... daddy is okay with it?"

"Well ... ye-" she began to answer, only to be interrupted. It is difficult to speak when a tongue other than one's own has been introduced into one's mouth and is exploring it vigorously. And it becomes even more difficult when one is falling backwards, landing gently on a futon. But it doesn't become completely impossible until a hand has slipped up under one's short skirt and then down again past the elastic of one's bicycle pants, and the fingers of that hand have gone where only one's own fingers have ever been.

"I've wanted this so long, Secchan," Konoka moaned as she pulled back both her mouth and her hand, the latter so as to start pushing the bicycle pants down Setsuna's legs as her other hand pulled.

"Wai- wha- how?" asked Setsuna when the pants had crosssed her hips.

"Pal, of course," Konoka answered absently, pushing up Setsuna's shirt.

"You - with -"

"No!" Konoka answered quickly. "But she has these four boxes, and even though I'm a little curious about what's in the box marked 'other', I only read what was in the box marked 'yuri'. But that was very informative," she said as the pants came down past Setsuna's ankles, allowing her to spread those beautifully muscled legs and promptly lower her head towards what lay between.

"Wait - no -" Setsuna gasped.

Konoka paused, and looked up at Setsuna with an incredibly frustrated expression. "Are you going to say, 'no, not there, it's dirty'? I thought people only said that in manga."

"No - but -" Setsuna continued to gasp.

"Can it wait?" Konoka asked, looking almost like she was about to cry.

_Deep breaths. Don't panic._

"Yes," said Setsuna in a tiny voice.

"Good," Konoka said, and continued.

Moments later, Setsuna achieved her first climax at the hands of another. Well, second, but Asuna-san hadn't realized what she was doing when she carressed her wings. Within a few moments of that, she was giving Konoka her first climax at the hands of another. Well, fifth, but Haruna didn't count. And neither did Kaede. Or Asuna. First with Setsuna, let's just say that, and since true love is true love, the rest didn't count ...

 **Next:** Asuna


	3. Asuna

Life was simply unfair, Asuna mused as she marched down the street carrying the huge pile of newspapers. One goes to a magical world, one saves that world and probably this one too, and one even manages to do this in a few days so that one has the full of one's summer vacation before one ... and one got summer days like this, cloudy and rainy. The rain hadn't started coming down yet, but she could tell that it was going to start any minute.

At least she was almost done. Then she could head home and spend the whole day ...

Doing what? Setsuna and Konoka wouldn't be back until tomorrow, so she couldn't train, not effectively. After what had happened, Eva had flatly indicated that she didn't want to see hide or hair of the club for a while. And she didn't really want to intrude on Negi and his mother as they re-established the bond between mother and son.

No, she didn't.

Well, she'd think of something to do.

Eventually, the paper route was done, and she made her way back to the dorms. As she headed for her door, she mused that there was one additional positive to all of this. All the training and fighting she'd been doing had left her with considerably more endurance than she'd had at the start of the year, so she no longer trudged home exhausted. Tired, but not exhausted.

"Tadaima," she announced as she came through the door.

"Okaeri," answered Arika's voice from further within the dorm room.

When Negi's voice didn't promptly chime in with greetings, Asuna's brow furrowed. He was usually up by now. She walked in to find Arika working in the suite's kitchenette with an intense expression on her face.

"Where's Negi?" Asuna asked.

"I sent him to take a bath, while I made breakfast," the older woman answered. "I should warn you that I'm not a very good cook."

"No, I'm sure it'll be fine ... but someone should have gone with him, he'll probably just splash around without getting clean otherwise," Asuna groused.

"No," Arika said simply. "He will bathe." Spoken with utter and complete confidence, such as one might possess if they had been raised from birth to rule a nation. Which, you know, she had.

"Oh," said Asuna. Trying desperately to ignore the hollow feeling inside of her.

Despite what certain cradle-robbing class representatives might think, Asuna didn't envy those who had the family she'd never had. Nor did she feel upset when they were happy with them. What she felt was more complicated. What she felt was empty. Incomplete. Like a puzzle piece in the wrong puzzle box.

Like she did now. With Arika here, in Negi's life ... what could he possibly need from Asuna, that his mother couldn't give him? Well, other than that, but that wasn't going to happen, of course.

Arika turned to look at her, then coughed. "As I said, I'm a poor cook. I believe that with some help, however, I can keep these eggs from exploding when they boil."

"Oh," Asuna replied. "Well, I'm not really much better, that's more Konoka's department, but ... I'll try."

She came forward to stand beside the woman, and seeing the problem, turned the burner down just a notch. For a while, they worked together in silence.

"Asuna-san," Arika said after a while. "Is there something you want to ask me?"

There were lots of things. Asuna understood that they were related, somehow, but her recovered memories didn't exactly include information about how she came to be. But she couldn't just ask. It ... just wasn't done. "I ... would be happy to learn anything that Arika-sama wanted to tell me," she temporized.

"Heh," the woman said, sounding much like Eva as she did so. "You and I are very much alike, Asuna-san."

"No way," Asuna said, shaking her head. "I've heard about you, you're much cooler, and smarter, and way better looking, and -"

"Don't belittle yourself unnecessarily," Arika interrupted. "You are beautiful, Asuna-san." She lifted a hand, touched Asuna's bandaged cheek with two fingers. "You are very beautiful."

And then, to Asuna's utter stupefication, Arika began to lean forward, bringing her face closer and closer towards Asuna's own with unmistakably pursed lips.

At the last moment, Asuna jerked back. "What, what, what are you doing?" she cried. "I don't, I'm not, what, no!"

Before Arika could answer, however, she was running out the door, past an immaculately clean Negi with a towel around his shoulders as he came back in. "Tadaimasuna-san, wha-" he said as she dashed past him, spinning him around in the process as she went out the door and slammed it shut behind her.

"Eh?" he said to Arika as she came into view. "Okaasama, did you -"

"No," she answered. "I did not yet tell her. I was working up to it, and ... well, perhaps it's best to give her some space. Young girls are fragile things. In any event, my son, it's time for you to learn about a thing called cunnilingus." One way or another, her vagina's hunger would be sated.

"Okay."

"What was that?"

"I mean, yes, ma'am."

It had, of course, begun to rain. Asuna, being Asuna, could no more remember the term pathetic fallacy than she could find square roots without a calculator. But she felt the rain was very appropriate, somehow. Eventually, she decided she'd run far enough, and came to a halt, leaning against a convenient tree. This, she decided, would be a good place to live from now on.

"Asuna?" said a feminine voice from behind her.

"Gyah!" Asuna replied, attempting to climb up into her new home.

Abruptly, however, she realized that the person speaking was clearly not Arika. Yuna was standing just a few feet away from her, staring at her with a startled expression under her umbrella. "What the heck are you doing?" the basketball star asked. "You're going to catch your death like that."

"Stupid people don't catch colds," Asuna said wearily. Then sneezed, ruining the moment a bit.

"Yeah, well, let's not take the chance that you've actually learned something," Yuuna said, forcefully escorting Asuna under the umbrella and walking her back to the paved path. Given how insanely strong Asuna was, Yuna couldn't possibly have moved her anywhere she didn't want to go. Good thing, then, that at the moment she was finding it almost impossible to want anything. So she went where she was led.

"What is this place?" she asked as she was led into a dusty, messy apartment.

"My dad's apartment," Yuna explained. "I was coming over here to clean up since he'd be out of the way. He's left for some academic conference that definitely isn't part of the magical world that he's been hiding from me since I was little."

Asuna sensed a sore spot.

"Come on, sit down," Yuna continued. "What happened? Did you and Negi-kun have another fight where he commented on your pubes?"

Cursing Haruna silently, Asuna sat down, but just shook her head.

"Well, then, what? Come on, Kagarazuka, I don't like seeing you like this!"

"I like older men," Asuna finally said.

Yuna waited, sure that there'd be more. When there wasn't, she decided to prod. "Yes, Asuna, I'm pretty sure that everyone in the class knows that you get off on dandy types. So -"

"I don't like older women, though. That's not the same thing. I don't like girls, like that, at all," Asuna responded to the prodding. That time with Konoka didn't count; they'd been two scared, lonely first year junior high students in a two person dorm room for the first time. And all those times when she was fightling with Ayaka and they found themselves staring into each other's eyes and knowing that only a centimeter closer and they'd be kissing, those didn't count either.

Yuna stared in confusion. "Did Konoka or Setsuna try something?" she asked.

Asuna opened her mouth to loudly answer no and sneezed loudly instead.

"Ah, geez, forget it. Just get out of those clothes, I'll get you some of -" Yuna paused, then coughed. "- some of my clothes that I don't keep here anymore. Ah, man, growing up sucks! Look, just get undressed and wait here while I go get you some spare clothes."

Yuna dashed out, and Asuna, continuing to feel obedient, heeded her instructions and stripped down to her bra and panties, dumping her jeans and sweatshirt on the floor beside the table. She rubbed herself to get rid of the chill. In addition to the cold, she felt sick to her stomach. Remembering the great love story she'd been told about Negi's parents, the truth about his mother really hurt. Poor Negi.

Why did she feel so bad? Yes, he'd be upset if he found out, but there were worse things, and ... why did she feel like this hurt her, not just hurt her because he'd be hurt? It didn't -

The door to the apartment opened. "Wow, that was fast, did you borrow -" Misora's shoes, she was about to say, but stopped when she saw who was standing in the doorway, staring at her in confusion as she stared at the forty-something bespectacled gentleman holding some luggage.

"Ah ... it's ... Asuna-kun, right?" he asked in a befuddled tone. "You're one of Yuna's friends, right?"

"Akashi-sensei?" she asked weakly.

"Yes, that's what they call me in class at least," he agreed, rubbing the back of his head.

"Yuna said you were away at a conference."

"Well, yes, I was going to one this morning, but my flight got bumped, and then bumped again, and since I was going to have to catch it later this evening, I decided to come home and ... yeah, um, this is one of those funny moments, isn't it?"

Asuna had never met Yuna's father before. Considering what people thought about Yuna's complex, and what she'd said about everyone knowing about Asuna's own complex, it had probably been due to conscious choice on Yuna's part. Probably, if she'd thought there was even a slight chance of them running into each other, Yuna would never have brought Asuna here. That was probably wise of Yuna. Her dad was hot.

Alas. The best-laid plans, and all that. Asuna got up from where she was sitting, and started to walk towards the professor. Understandably, given that he probably had heard rumors of her strength and punishment of perverts, this startled the poor fellow. "Now, now, Asuna-kun, calm down, there's nothing all that bad about being seen in one's underwear, it's, well, it's like a bikini, really, and -"

She closed the distance between them, pressed herself close to his chest, and kissed him soundly.

"Wha?" he said a moment later, when she allowed his lips to be freed. "What are you -"

"Establishing some freaking heterosexuality," Asuna explained, and pulled him down to the floor with her, then rolled so that she was straddling his knees. With her left hand, she pressed gently down on his upper abdomen, stopping him from rising, while her right hand went down to his zipper. He wasn't wearing a belt, thankfully. She wasn't sure how she'd go about undoing one with one hand.

"Wait, wait a minute, Asuna-kun," said the subject of her attentions. "It's, it's very flattering that you'd be interested in me, but this, this is massively inappropriate, and -"

She finished pulling down the zipper, reached in and pulled out his thing, holding it tightly - tight enough to make him break off what he was saying with a squeak. She promptly loosened her grip on it, both to relieve his distress and to get a better look at what she was holding. Unsurprisingly, it was larger than the only one she'd ever seen at fairly close range. It was still largely soft, however. What was she supposed to do about that?

Oh. Yeah. That. Her face scrunched up as she considered it. All the while, Akashi-sensei had been politely but forcefully telling her how wrong all of this was. Thinking of him as a teacher, rather than as someone to whom she was performing acts of dubious consent, helped drown him out. Asuna, being Asuna, had never bothered to listen much to even Takahata-sensei's words; his voice had been another matter, though. Welp, that was what girls did in this situation, so, she released her grip on his thing and bent over to take it in her mouth.

It tasted pretty much like she expected it to taste, but she pushed past that to start licking the sides like Misa had said boys liked in the private, 'what all this really means' classes she'd thrown after they'd started giving sex ed. She considered going up to provide some attention to the top of it, but since that was where the pee came out, she decided not to go there. Akashi-sensei had fallen completely silent when she started, and so all the sounds were those she made, whether the sound of her lips and tongue, or the sound of the bells in her hair as she moved her head.

Eventually, she decided it was as hard as it was going to get. It didn't look as hard as the ones in the decensored mangas Haruna had showed, but then those were gay guys' things. Maybe they were different. She lifted her head up and shoved her panties to one side before moving so that his thing was pointing up at her thing.

"Asuna-kun," gasped Akashi-sensei. "Please ..."

"Please what?" she asked, trying to work out the right angle for it to go in. It was tricky! Why hadn't Misa's classes touched on this subject? Admittedly, the misses felt weirdly good sometimes.

"... please be gentle ..." he whimpered.

That seemed really backwards, but now wasn't the time to address it. Instead, she muttered, "This is probably going to hurt," and pushed her you-know-where onto his you-know-what.

Huh. It didn't hurt. It was tight, certainly, but there wasn't any tearing sensation like Misa, Haruna and Konoka had described. Odd. Well, now that it was in, the rest was probably easy. Asuna started to rock back and forth on her knees, feeling the tight sensation move as she did. She pulled back the hand which had been resting on his stomach to put it on the floor to give herself slightly more leverage.

And he stood up. That threw her; she knew how strong she was, but it hadn't occurred to her that she weighed very little, when compared to him, and that he could easily support her weight if she wasn't actively pushing against him. Before she could decide what to do about the situation, he moved forward so that her butt was resting on the tabletop and began moving back and forth as she had.

Well. There was a change in attitude for you. He even reached up fiddle with the cups of her bra, getting his fingers into them to twist at her nipples, and pressed his lips to hers rather fiercely. "So long," he murmured.

Oh, that was actually kind of sweet, when she thought about it. She lifted her knees up to his hips and pulled her legs around his butt, crossing her ankles behind it. She hoped he didn't mind the wet socks being pressed there. Maybe she should have pulled them off too, when she was getting undressed. This was probably an odd time to think about it, though.

And then he began to gasp, pulling back. She held on to him, thinking that he was having yet another change of heart, and so tightened her hips around his, but not nearly as tightly as she could have, since she didn't want to hurt him. And then he let out one last gasp and she felt a wet sensation down below.

Ah, that was why he was trying to pull back. It would probably have been smarter to let him do so, Asuna decided. But spilt milk, and all that. Heh, milk. Heh. Funny.

Also funny was the fact that although Asuna, or parts of her, had never been this full in her life before now, she still felt hollow and empty.

And then there was a thump from the doorway. Owing to their differences in height, Akashi-sensei (It might be a good idea, thought Asuna, to learn his name sometime.) was better placed to turn and see what it was. He made a strangled noise.

"Dad?" said Yuna.

**Next:** Konoka.


	4. Konoka

Konoe Konoka was well aware that she came off as a bit of a ditz, sometimes. Considering that her best friend (as distinct from her girlfriend) was one of the most infamous of the Baka Rangers, and her own generally sunny and mellow approach to life, a lot of people were quite surprised that test scores in her first and second year of junior high had narrowly made it into the top 100 for their years. The truth was that, much like her cousin Yue, Konoka didn't put a lot of importance on academic achievement - which was a nice way of saying that she was lazy and unmotivated.

But not even several of the best orgasms ever could make her forget semi-important stuff.

"So what was the stuff that had you almost holding out on me," she asked Setsuna as they lounged together on the futon, interrupting the sentence several times with gentle kisses to her bodyguard's left ankle. It was a cute ankle. All of Secchan's body parts were cute. All of them. Her body was freaking wonderland. And their current position, scissored together as they were, allowed her to give love to some of them that she usually couldn't. That added spice to the way occasional movements caused their womanhoods to brush against one another, sending pleasurable chills up Konoka's spine.

"Oh," said Setsuna said wearily. "That. OjousamAAAAA!"

Konoka maintained her gentle pinch on a sensitive part of Secchan's anatomy. "You know, Secchan, I really do think that I've made my position clear," she said leisurely. "I won't object to you calling me ojousama in public as long as you call me Kono-chan in private. Or come up with something cuter. But I refuse, utterly refuse, to be called ojousama when we've just fucked each other senseless. Okay?" Now she released the pinch.

"Yes, o-"

"Ah?" Pinching gesture.

"Oh ... sexy fortune teller?"

"See? You can do it! Now what is it?"

"Promise you won't get mad?"

"Of course not. Now tell me!"

"Uh ... well ... basically, Eishun-sama ... well, I'm not sure how one goes about saying this, but ... apparently, he is my father too."

Konoka stared.

"Kono-chan?" asked Setsuna.

Konoka continued to stare.

"Ojousama?" asked Setsuna, daring much.

And then a noise burst from Konoka, burbling up from the depths of her stomach through her windpipe and out through her mouth and nose, a noise so primal and basic as to be fundamentally unrepresentable in writing, save by an onomatapeia that cannot hope to capture the deep and true essence of that sound. That onomatapeia is, "Squee!"

Picoseconds after that, she flung herself at Setsuna, kissing her face frantically as their nubile bodies ground together in sensual bliss. "This is great!" she cried. "I told Negi-kun that I always wanted a little brother, and that's true, but I really wanted sisters too! And my sister is you? That makes it so much better!"

"But - what - wait?" Setsuna said, once more floored beneath the passage of Hurricane Konoka. "O - oh, sexy healer, this makes what we just did incest. Doesn't that bother you at all?"

"Oh, silly Secchan, incest is no big deal," Konoka said dismissively. "Why, the mangas Pal showed me were filled with brothers and brothers and brothers and sisters and sisters and sisters and mothers and sons and -"

"I thought you said you only read her yuri box," Setsuna said bravely.

"Not the time to get hung up on what I said or didn't say, Secchan," Konoka replied energetically. "- and mothers and daughters and ... and fathers and daughters ... and ..."

And a dark little light bulb turned on in Konoka's brain.

"But you know what, Secchan?" she said quietly. "I am angry. Not at you, no, never at you. But daddy? Oh, I'm plenty angry at daddy. Letting you think you were some orphan dependent on our family's charity? Not telling either of us before this? I absolutely can't forgive daddy for doing this."

Setsuna felt panic starting to crawl up her spine. She knew how much Konoka loved her father, and to see her this angry ...! "But, I mean, he had a good reason, I'm sure he had a good reason?"

"No reason is good enough for that. He cannot be forgiven ... not until he makes amends. Let's go tell him that he needs to get started on that." She stood up and pulled on the outer robe of her yukata, belting it loosely at the waist. "Come on, Secchan. Or would you rather I start calling you oneesama, now? I kinda like that."

"Uh ... shouldn't we maybe get dressed before we go anywhere?" Setsuna asked, reaching for her undergarments.

"We won't need them," Konoka said grimly. Well, as grimly as one can say something with a naughty smile on one's face.

Clad only in robes, the two commando girls marched down the hallway to the room with the Setsuna-shaped hole in the door, where their father was still slumped at the tea table. Ignoring the hole, Konoka flung the door open and marched in, with Setsuna following apprehensively behind. "Bad daddy!" she declaimed, pointing a finger at said malign father. "Bad, bad, bad, bad daddy!"

"So you know," Eishun said sorrowfully. "I am so sorry, Konoka-chan. Please forgive your foolish -"

"Nuh-uh," Konoka interrupted, shaking her head. "I absolutely, definitely cannot forgive you. Nuh-uh, no way."

"How can I earn your forgiveness?" Eishun asked, looking as though he were on the verge of tears.

"Hm, I wonder," replied Konoka, tapping her finger to her cheek. She settled down beside her father. "Perhaps you can be forgiven if you tell us about Secchan's mother. You don't remember your mother, do you, Secchan?"

"Uh ... no, she died giving birth to me," Setsuna answered, still very anxious. She didn't really know where all this was leading, but something seemed very wrong about it all. _More wrong than having sex with your sister? Shut up, imaginary Chisame._

"Died giving birth to her," repeated Konoka, emphasizing every word as she stared levelly at her father. "I wonder why that happened. People don't die of grief, they say, but when it comes to bird tribe demons, who knows? What was Setsuna-oneesama's mother like, daddy? Did she look like her daughter does?"

"Yes," Eishun rasped. "Sometimes ... sometimes it hurt, looking at her and seeing so much of her mother in her. The curve of her cheek. The way her eyes shone when she was with you. And -"

"Her wings?" Konoka asked impulsively. "Oh, that's right, you've never seen her wings, have you, daddy? She always kept them hidden away, because she was taught to be ashamed of them, ashamed of herself. Show daddy your wings, Secchan. Show him your beautiful wings."

"Uh ..." Setsuna temporized. "There's not really room in here for that, ojousama."

"We're technically in public, so I'll let that slide," Konoka said sweetly, eyes going starry. "Pleeease?"

She could no more resist that then she could fly to the moon. There really wasn't room, though, so she only let her wings unfurl slightly, just enough so that they showed behind her. It was a bit like flourishing them to scare off a predator. Really, it was harder to do this than it was to keep them hidden all the time; they wanted to be one way or another, and having them part of the way was rather -

"Beautiful," Eishun said brokenly. "Yes, her wings were black as the night, and yours are white as snow, but they are just as beautiful as hers were."

Setsuna felt the blush coming, and it surprised her. She let her wings collapse back to where they were normally hidden.

"Yes, they're beautiful. Each and every part of Secchan is beautiful," Konoka murmured. She'd moved around so that she was sitting behind her father, resting her chin on his shoulder as he gazed at Setsuna. "Of course, there are other parts of Secchan that you haven't seen, and so can't compare to the parts of her mother that you certainly did see, aren't there, daddy? Let's see about changing that. Setsuna-oneesama ... take off the robe, please." Eyes sparkling. Smiling sweetly. Voice like steel.

Setsuna saw herself undoing the robe's belt and letting it fall to the ground around her feet. She couldn't stop herself from doing that, but she couldn't stop herself from blushing brightly, either. She also heard Eishun draw in a hoarse breath, and suspected that the blush got even brighter as a result. It didn't mean anything, she told herself, everyone likes to be admired, no matter who was doing it.

But then, dimly, she saw that the sight of her naked body, gleaming in the room's candlelight, was only part of the reason for that gasp. Her jaw lowered slightly at the sight of Konoka's hand, slipping in through the fold in her father's robe, and the arm behind that hand moving slowly back and forth.

"Are they as pretty, Daddy?" Konoka asked. "Secchan's breasts. Are they as pretty as her mother's breasts were? I love Secchan's breasts, Daddy. I love the way they feel, the way they taste, and the way her face looks when I bite down on her nipples."

"Konoka," he gasped.

"What, daddy? What's the matter? You told her the truth about us, and then you let her come back to me, knowing what would happen. So you can't have any real problem with it. And if it's all right for us, then surely it's all right for all of us. That's just simple logic. You don't want to violate simple logic, do you, daddy?"

"But -"

"Stand up, daddy," Konoka continued, as though she hadn't been interrupted. With one arm holding around her father's lower chest, and the other hand still doing what it had been doing, she lifted up from her kneeling posture and brought him unsteadily along with her. Once he was on his feet, she pulled back the robe, exposing his own naked, scarred form. But never once did she let go of her hold on her father's manhood.

It was, of course, not the first time she'd seen one. Her training had included knowledge of all the ways there were to hurt a man, and gripping one there was a good way of doing it, and she had done well in the practicum. (Motoko-sempai had praised her even as Motoko-sempai's friend was yelling at them both for abusing her husband.) And she'd even done so once in the field, to Negi-sensei, by accident. And sometimes she remembered that, and blushed, and imagined ...

"I want this, daddy," Konoka said, her voice soft but loud enough for both of them to hear. "I love you, and I love Secchan, and I want the people I love to love each other. All of them. Do you want me to forgive you? Then do this." And then she let go of her hold, and pushed Eishun at Setsuna. He stumbled towards her, almost falling before he reached her and rested her hands on her shoulders.

She had never thought about this. Well, okay, she'd thought about how, if Negi-sensei were a little bit older, she wouldn't mind ... and there was that one time when she had watched Tsuruko-sensei rutting away with her husband in the kitchen, and had her first orgasm from caressing herself while watching, and even though she'd told herself that she was really aroused by Tsuruko-sensei's passion and by the sight of Motoko-sempai watching and rubbing herself just as she was, in retrospect she had to admit that sensei's husband was really very ...

"So beautiful," wept Eishun.

And then she realized that this was very much like that, as she fell back against the wall and felt Eishun's manhood push up against her and then push up into her. She was where Tsuruko-sensei had been, and Eishun was where sensei's husband had been, and Konoka was sprawled across the table rubbing herself and okay that was not even close to where Motoko-sempai had been, but oh god she was having sex with a man and the man was her father. And despite this, despite the fact that she had never even thought about this except for a few vague thoughts, with all of her passion focused into becoming worthy of Konoka, despite the fact that she had finally accepted that she loved the girl, despite how sick and wrong all of this was, it felt so good.

She felt the first orgasm approaching and didn't bother to fight it. First fight she'd ever thrown. Totally worth it.

His hands, which had been resting on her hips, moved back to lift up her legs so that her knees came up to his own hips, then pulled them both back from the wall. A step backwards, a turn, and then he was dropping to his knees and pushing her down to the floor. All this, while never once stopping his pounding into her. Such flawless technique, she marveled. As expected from a master of the Shinmei-ryu.

"Is he good, oneesama," Konoka asked, having come down from the table to press up against her side. "Is daddy good?"

"Yes, ojousamAAAAAA!"

"I didn't pinch you yet!" Konoka complained, then shook her head. "Oh, well, never mind. Are you almost done, daddy? Are you going to finish?"

"I, I, I," Eishun said, and Setsuna was surprised to see that he was sobbing.

"Ah, yes, you are. But, despite all of this, I still can't forgive you yet, daddy. So you don't get to finish inside Secchan." She pushed firmly against his chest. "Pull out. Or else."

Eishun reared back, but before Setsuna could react to the sudden emptiness in her, Konoka was moving, leaning down to fill it with two fingers even as she took her father's manhood in her mouth. Seconds later, Eishun let out a deep groan.

"Mmm, delicious," Konoka murmured a moment later.

"So ... have I earned your forgiveness, yet?" Eishun asked wearily, collapsing beside his daughters.

Konoka patted him on the chin. "You've made a good start. I am sure that I can forgive you eventually."

"Oh, no," whimpered Setsuna.

 **Next:** Yuna.


	5. Yuna

So there she was, standing in a doorway and watching her father make sweet love to one of her classmates. It was a pretty shocking moment, really. Still, Akashi Yuna had been through shocking moments that involved sex before, though, so all that she did was stare at the coupling of her father and Asuna Kagarazuka and reflect on those other moments.

The first shocking moment had been while she and Makie were stranded in the Magical World. Unlike some of their classmates, they'd had it pretty easy, finding a way to make a living working in a desert cafe. And after a short amount of time, they'd found out that their teacher was still alive and working on a way to rescue all of his students, and that he was also even more totally badass than they'd already known. This made them both pretty happy.

It had made Yuna so happy that she'd ended up losing her virginity to one of the customers, a nice wolf-man, in the back room of the cafe. The shocking moment had been the discovery that, despite her expectations, he did have fur on his thing, and that, despite her own expectations, she wasn't a virgin. Well, not technically. Rommie-kun, who was pretty sensitive for someone who was perfectly able to eat raw meat even if he preferred it cooked, had explained to her that girls who were physically active (like Yuna) often broke their hymens without even realizing it. And Yuna, who had had at least one night where things had happened that she couldn't remember, was pleased to accept this explanation instead of the other one that seemed frighteningly plausible.

It hadn't been quite the summer romance she was expecting, but it'd been pretty nice, and when she'd said goodbye to him, he'd licked her face in fairwell. All the way to Megalomesembria, Makie had teased her about Rommie-kun having a crush on her, which had firmly convinced her that Makie was the single most clueless human being she'd ever met. However, she had decided not to enlighten the child, so she really had no one to blame but herself.

And then some other stuff had happened, and Yuna had saved the whole freaking Magical World with a little help from the rest of the class. Okay, so maybe she'd technically been petrified while the whole saving the world thing happened, but ... well, anyway.

After all the dust had settled, she'd been reunited with Donet McGuiness, and was startled by how relieved the older woman had been to see that she was all right. But then she'd realized that Donet-san was probably worried about explaining what had happened to her father. So Yuna had told her that it was okay, she knew about her mother and that she was going to have a little talk with her dad. She hadn't really paid much attention to the shocked look on Donet's face when she'd said that.

Later, when she was resting in the huge bath area of the hotel where they'd ended up holed up for a while as it all ended, Yuna had been really surprised when Donet showed up and, without preamble, said, "Look, we need to talk about your mother. The truth is, I loved her very much, but whatever you might have been told, your father didn't 'steal' her from me. You can't steal people, no matter what some might think, and she was an adult who made her own choices, always. I loved her, and I miss her, but I'm glad that a part of the person I loved survives in you. And I wouldn't have it any other way."

And Yuna had replied, "Wait, what?" And watched Donet blush as she realized that, in fact, Yuna had not known that she and Yuna's mother, Yuka, had been lovers for years before Yuka even met Yuna's father, and that there'd been kind of a scandal when Yuka dumped her to marry him. Finding out that her mother went both ways had been a pretty big shock.

But not nearly as big of a shock as finding out that Yuna herself went both ways. When she'd asked Donet just how that worked, Donet had after some halting attempts at an explanation, then just stopped dead, stared at her and said that Yuna was so much like her mother it was scary. And then there had been kissing, and touching, and then kissing down there (and boy, wasn't it good that they were in the baths, because down there would have been really dirty otherwise) and it had been way better than anything Rommie-kun had done.

Weirdly, Donet had apologized to her later, saying that she shouldn't have done that, that she'd lost control of herself. That had weirded Yuna out, because it had been great, and the fact that she apparently wasn't ever going to get to do stuff with her again was a real downer. So she'd headed back to school for the rest of her summer vacation, and started looking out for a boy- or girl-friend who wouldn't pull that crap on her.

The best part of all of it was that, between finding out that her dad had been hiding things from her, which sort of suggested that he might have more of his shit together than she realized, and all of her adventures, she had finally gotten clear of her daddy complex. She was going to have her life, and he was going to have hers, and they were going to be part of each others' lives, but not the whole of them. She'd been ready for love that didn't come from daddy.

And here she was watching Asuna getting love that did come from daddy.

Really, she shouldn't be watching this. She should just turn around and walk out of the room and pretend she hadn't seen anything. They hadn't noticed her, not surprising considering her father's back was to her and that back was wide enough to block Asuna's sight line to the door. The smart thing to do would be to just walk away, and since Yuna, while not brilliant, was certainly no baka ranger, she ought to do the smart thing. But she had the strangest feeling that she'd forgotten something.

There was a thumping noise beside her.

Oh, yeah. She'd forgotten how she dropped the shopping bag of clothes she'd gone to get Asuna so that she could change. And she'd also forgotten how time could slow down while she reflected. The bag had just now hit the floor. She saw her dad's head turn around, somewhat awkwardly, to see what the noise was, and heard him let out a strangled noise.

"Dad?" she said.

"Yuna," he answered, looking from her back down to Asuna where she was lying on the table. "Oh, oh, no, oh, dear ..."

"This ... this isn't -" Asuna started to say.

Her dad being clueless and helpless was nothing new, but Asuna's words finally made Yuna feel really angry. "So help me, Kagarazuka, if you try and say 'this isn't what it looks like', I swear by my pretty orange jersey that I will find a way to end you!" she snapped as she started walking further into the room, coming up to a point where she and Asuna could look each other in the eyes.

Asuna's weird, mismatched pair looked a bit frightened. That annoyed Yuna further. She didn't want Yuna to be frightened. She wanted her to be _ashamed_.

"I didn't, didn't -" Asuna continued to stammer.

"What, you didn't intend to have sex with my dad? This is all a big mistake on someone's part? Were you innocently laying back on the table when he came in? Did he slip, fall, and land in your junk?"

Her dad fell back then, landing with his butt on the floor and his softening 'junk' still waving above the elastic of his briefs. Yuna didn't spare him a glance. She certainly didn't eye her father's thing. Not at all! Her eyes were solely on her treacherous classmate.

"I'm so, I don't know what came over me, I'm just so sorry, Yuna," Asuna babbled, looking like she was about to start crying.

"It doesn't like like anything came over you," Yuna replied, opening the button of her shorts and unzipping them. "And if I'm sorry was good enough, we wouldn't the police, would we?" She shoved the shorts and the panties under them down to her ankles, and then stepped out of them.

"What are you -" Asuna gasped, but Yuna had hopped up on the table and crawled over to kneel above her face, cutting her off.

"Kiss my ass, Kagarazuka," she snapped. "And while you're at it, kiss other parts down there, too. You don't like girls, huh? Well, you're getting an education in how to go about having sex with them anyway, like it or not." Yuna was dimly aware that Asuna was freakishly strong and could probably hurt her a great deal if she shoved her off. She was basically hoping that Asuna's shame would stop her from doing that. It probably wasn't a good plan, but she wasn't thinking too clearly.

"Yuna," her father gasped.

"That's right, daddy," she said, raising her eyes to look at him. "Just like mom, I go both ways. I'm just like mom in all kinds of ways, aren't I?" She actually felt tears starting to run down her face. "I try not to be angry like I want to be about all of the lies and secrets, and I try not to be a pest like I have been by waiting until you're gone to come over and clean up, and I try not to be a bitch like I can be when I see someone in trouble, and what happens? You fuck my friends! Kagarazuka, I don't feel any kissing down there!" Yuna roared.

Incredibly, she then did. Asuna had no technique, though. "Not like that, like _this_ , dammit!" Yuna dove between Asuna's legs to show her how it was done. She abruptly realized that she had never done this to a girl who'd just had sex with a guy, which altered several factors about a girl's flower. And then she remembered whose climax she was tasting, and reared back up again to glare at him.

The glare turned into a gape when she saw a certain change in her father's posture. "You're getting turned on," she said dazedly. "You're getting turned on watching me do this. Is it ... did mom do this sort of thing in front of you? Bring home girls and do stuff to them while you watched? Were you keeping that from me too?"

"Yuna, I never meant to -"

"What? Lie to me? What, you slipped, fell, and lies came out of your mouth? Yes, I know that doesn't make sense, shut up!" Yuna pulled herself away from Asuna's half-hearted attentions and slid forward to sit on her stomach. "I am really, really mad at you, dad!" she yelled, then breathed heavily for a few moments.

Her father quickly got to his feet and rushed forward to hug her. "Yuna, I'm so sorry!"

She struggled in his embrace. "No! No, daddy, you don't get to make this right by hugging me and saying sorry! That's not how it works. You ... just don't ..." She pulled back to look in his eyes, to try and make just how angry she was clear to him. And all that she could see there was remorse and regret, and her anger eased, leaving only the love that was behind it.

She leaned forward and claimed his lips with her own. So long ago, it seemed, she'd mused about what it would be like to get a deep, passionate kiss from her father. Ako had been stunned that she'd thought it might be nice. And it was nice. Her father was a great kisser. Better than Donet. Rommie-kun wasn't even in the running.

"I know about mom and Donet-san," she murmured, pulling away from the kiss briefly. "People thought you stole mom from her. You kiss better than she does ... do you do other things better than she does, daddy?"

"What? Yuna, I don't think we -"

"Time to make amends, daddy," she said, and pushed herself up off of Asuna and the table and into his arms. This shifted him off balance, pushing him back away from the table and carrying her with him. "If you can fuck my friends ... you can fuck me." She reached down with the hand that wasn't around his neck, holding her steady, grabbed hold of his hardness, and pulled it into her wet center with a groan.

Behind her, Asuna pulled herself together and sat up to stare at the most disturbing sight she'd seen that day. "Uh ... okay ... I think I'll ... just be going, then," she announced.

The coupling before her paid her no mind as she got up off the table and pulled her underwear back into position. They fell back onto the floor, and were rolling over, as she walked lightly across the floor and picked up the bag of clothes that Yuna had dropped earlier. "Um, thanks for the ..." she started to say, then thought better of it, and proceeded to pull them on in silence.

Once fully dressed, and having pulled on her shoes at the doorway, Asuna paused to consider whether she should ask before borrowing an umbrella from the stand. Her decision was made by Yuna's sharp-voiced cry, "Yes, Daddy, just like that, yes!"

Walking out with the umbrella, Asuna mused on the fact that she felt even worse than she had when this had all started, earlier this morning. She hadn't thought that was possible ...

For a while, she walked aimlessly through town beneath the borrowed umbrella. The streets were empty, since most people, not being Asuna, had the sense to stay in out of the rain. But she knew perfectly well that there was really only one place that she had to go. She arrived at the dorm, looked up to see the light in her room's window ... and headed inside.

**Next:** Chisame


	6. Chisame

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is primarily the work of OverMaster.

"Mother," Chisame said quietly, sitting down at the other end of the table, keeping her gaze low and balling her fists over her lap. "It's ... been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yes. Far too long," the short, brown haired woman replied with unmistakable sadness. "Chisame ... if this is about confronting me with my faults as a mother, let me tell you, lately, I have been thinking a lot about all my past mistakes, and -"

"I'm not interested in talking about that," the teenager replied, almost curtly. "I don't want to talk about the past. Quite the opposite, actually. I, I want to tell you about ..." Her fingers tapped on her own knees nervously before she gathered enough courage to say it. "... about what I wish for my future."

Her mother's eyes gained a spark of hopeful interest, mixed with controlled dread, behind her own thick round glasses. "Tell me, please."

"I believe ... I may have found ... someone I'd like to spend the rest of my life with. Someone who will let me have my own space, but also will always be there whenever I need him."

"Chisame, that is won-"

"No. It isn't," she interrupted, bitterly. "Because it's wrong from all angles. That person already has someone else, and I-I'm sure he won't be able to love me as he loves her ..."

The woman grew pale. "Oh dear. But ... you're still young, Chisame. You'll love again. I should know. Once, I was-"

"No! I'm not a person who loves easily, and you know it!" she protested. "And it's even harder for me to be loved back. I'm not that kind of person. I always knew, never cared. Until now. Now ... damn it, Mom, I can't even talk about it! Forget it!" She got up, avoiding looking at the older woman. "I'll work through this alone. It's all I can do, right? Sorry if I inconvenienced you."

Her mother sprang up, grabbing her by a hand. "Chisame, wait!"

"What?"

"That person. The one you love. Who is he?"

"What does it matter? I'll forget him, but to do so, I'd prefer not talking about him at all." She bit her lower lip, as though physical pain would help her ignore the emotional.

"Has he wronged you in any way?"

"No! If anything, it's the opposite. He's so damned kind it ... but that's why it'd never work, see? And I told you, he already has someone else. A much better match for him ..."

"Your teacher. Negi Springfield," her mother said. "He is the one you are talking about, isn't he?"

Chisame's face paled, her eyes growing wide. Her hand wiggled out of her mother's grasp.

"H-How did you-"

"You may not notice it, but I make a point of keeping myself as well-informed about your daily life as I can," the older woman said, inhaling deeply, sitting back down and bowing her head in a defeated gesture. "You barely spend any time with any other male. It has to be him."

Chisame nodded in reluctant shame. She couldn't say anything.

There was a long silence from both females.

"Chisame," the mother finally said. "There's something I must tell you."

"You don't approve. I know. Why should you?"

"It isn't that. You said we shouldn't dwell into the past, but sometimes, we must. Or else, its consequences will come back to strike us down when we least expect it. I was an idiot and ignored that truth, for years and years."

"Mother? What are you talking about?"

"Chisame, your father and I divorced because of a lot of reasons. Mostly because he was, despite my early devotion to him, a man who didn't deserve to be loved at all. He's selfish, inconsiderate and manipulative, and we both know that all too well."

The girl nodded without any hesitation. "Yes, I do."

"However, I ..." her voice cracked, "I wasn't much better. I loved your father from afar since college, but for a long while, I never had any actual hope of ever becoming his wife. He was rich, handsome and popular, always with girls hanging on his arms, while I was ... a pathetic, miserable putdown loser, and -"

"Is this a way to tell me the loser girl gets the guy at the end?" Chisame interrupted. "Because if so, it's not helping."

"Listen. Please," she begged with a choked voice, wiping tears from her eyes. "I moved to this city after graduating. And here, I met a man who was in transit, always coming and going, often running errands for the Dean of Mahora."

Chisame stiffened up.

"He, too, loved another. But at the time, they had drifted apart from each other, believing they'd never meet again. They were both ... impulsive and emotional like that. Too devoted to each other, but sometimes, the backlash of a separation in a strong, foolish heart will move it to ... stray away from its intended path. We both thought we needed someone ..."

"Please, no," Chisame said in instinctive panic. "Don't tell me -!"

"I must. And you must hear me," her mother sobbed. "I should have told you years ago, but ... we were together a few times, but soon realized we weren't compatible at all. And so, we separated on the best of terms, and soon he went back to his one true love. It wasn't until weeks after he left Mahora that I learned that I was pregnant."

"No. No, I don't want to hear this!" she shouted.

"Listen me, please! I met Toshiyuki again shortly afterwards. For once, he took pity on me. Briefly, we thought it could be true love. He offered to take good care of you, and we married. I thought I had finally reached happiness, but it couldn't last. His true colors returned, and he started despising you, as a reminder of that man's existence. We decided to separate, and he'd continue supporting you financially, but he'd have as little to do with you as possible. That's the true reason why your bear my family's name and not his. His family is far more influential than mine."

Chisame's eyes had gone nearly blank, and her skin was blanketed by sweat.

"Please forgive me. I've been far more aware of the world you move through that I've let you know. I know you've always wanted a normal life, and for years, I tried to keep it that way for you. If you had known that man was your true father -"

"Negi-sensei!"

"Yes. That boy is his son, as well."

Chisame slapped her across the face.

* * *

"Tadaima," Asuna repeated wearily as she came through the door.

"Asuna-san!" Negi cried, runnning into view. "Are you all right? Why did you run off like that? Where'd you get that change of clothes? What -"

She endured the barrage of questions stoically, even as the sensation of hollow emptiness inside of her eased slightly, as she'd realized that it always did when he was around. But standing behind him was the initial source of her distress, and she couldn't take as much comfort from Negi as she wished.

"I need to talk to your mother in private," Asuna finally said, interrupting Negi's stream of worry.

"Eh?"

"Yes, we do need some privacy, my son. Perhaps you should go and see what mischief your small friend is up to with Miyazaki-san." She had taken all of five minutes to convince Chamo that he didn't want to mess with her, and lately he was keeping the lonely bookstore girl company.

"Oh. Yes, ma'am," Negi agreed, and with a last gentle smile to Asuna, he went out into the hallway and closed the door behind him.

"Well?" Arika said after a brief silence.

"Do you know how much Negi worships his father?" Asuna said at last. "Do you have any idea how hurt he'll be if he finds out that you're cheating on him?"

"I am not," Arika answered firmly. "Nagi and I have an open relationship."

The last words were in English, and so Asuna struggled to understand. Briefly. "What?"

"He is free to take other lovers, and so am I. We agreed on this when we came together. He is first and foremost in my heart, and I am in his, and what our bodies do when they are not joined together, does not matter nearly as much as that fact."

"Do you really think Negi will understand that?" Asuna snapped, not liking the way that this was going, not liking the way it made her look like the bad guy in all of this.

"Yes. He already knows, and accepts." Arika fell silent for a moment. "Asuna-san. I find you ... incredibly beautiful. You remind me of everything I find attractive in myself. As well you should."

"Huh?" Asuna asked.

Arika explained the rest.

* * *

Karakuri Chachamaru, wearing her frilly French maid outfit as she did every Sunday around that time of the day, was dusting off the furnishings at the living room of Evangeline McDowell's cottage. It had started to rain outside, quickly becoming a furious rainstorm. The distraction of dusting and the rain probably interfered with her sensors just enough to make the knock at the front door a surprise for her. She opened the door to find herself face to face with the slumped form of a sopping wet Hasegawa Chisame.

"Chisame-san!" the gynoid gasped.

The human girl stumbled in through the doorway, so badly shaken Chachamaru had to take her in her arms to stop her fall. She wiped the light brown hair off Hasegawa's face, seeing her eyes were red and distinctly tearful even through the rain water running down her face. "Chisame-san," she repeated. "What happened to you? Your heart rate is far too quick, and you could catch a cold. Why-"

Chisame clung to her desperately. "I needed ... someone, anyone." She laughed through the sobs without a trace of humor. It was a horrible sound. "And I couldn't think of anyone but you."

"Chachamaru?" Evangeline asked, stepping in from the door to her bedroom, wearing nothing but one of her flimsy black negligees, her tight thong panties showing underneath the semi transparent fabric. "Who's there? I heard knocking. Oh, it's you," she snarled at Chisame. "What do you want? I thought I made myself been clear; I don't want to see any of you around for a very long time!"

Chisame just started to sob, burying her face into Chachamaru's chest.

"Do _not_ ignore me, child!" Eva roared.

"Please, Master," Chachamaru requested softly, caressing Hasegawa's head with a hand. "She's clearly under a severe strain right now, and it's raining outside. I beg for your permission to keep her tonight."

Evangeline scowled, seeing Chisame's crying showed no signs of stopping. "Fine. But I demand an explanation for this behavior, Hasegawa Chisame. You will relate it in the bath. Chachamaru, bring her over." She turned around and began heading for the furo. "She needs a hot bath before she catches her death. And she's getting my floor all wet, too."

"Thank you, Master." The robot sighed with relief as she helped Chisame to the bathroom.

Once there, Evangeline stripped down without a second thought, leaving her scarce garments on the floor for her servant to pick them up. Meanwhile, Chisame rubbed her nose and sneezed. Chachamaru got the hot water ready, then carefully began to strip Chisame of her clothes, piece by piece. Her classmate didn't pose any resistance, against Chachamaru's expectations, but neither did she help. It was like undressing a mannequin; all the struggle seemed to have left her.

Evangeline washed herself and settled down at the furo, watching with vague interest as Chisame's body was exposed to her. She visited the public baths occasionally, and through it all, she had developed a certain interest in her classmates' bodies. Chisame did have an appealing figure, with a firm and well rounded behind, and breasts that were neither too small or too big, perfectly shaped on her slender frame.

Once she was fully naked, Chachamaru gave her a quick washing and settled her down at the other end of the furo. While not nearly as large as the bath at the resort, that one was more than big enough for three people at once. Then the robot undressed as well, baring a shapely body that was impossible to tell apart from a human one now, even down to her hairless vagina. She washed herself before entering the furo as well, sitting behind Chisame and lovingly washing her hair down.

Chisame breathed out, apparently feeling better now. "Thank you," she murmured.

"So you haven't lost the gift of speech," Evangeline growled. "Well, then, let us hear what has you so shaken."

"Today ... I went to visit my mother," the hacker began, in a very slow and quiet tone.

"Yes, and?" Eva pressed on.

"My father --"

Eva lifted an eyebrow. "Has he ... died?" she asked, sounding more human and less callous now, somehow.

"I don't know," Chisame gathered some water in her hands and splashed it on her own face, then kept her face buried between her fingers. "I don't know if he's dead or alive. Until today, I didn't even know ... he was my father ..."

Evangeline made a face of shocked disgust. "So. She told you."

"You knew," Chisame said. There was no outrage or scandal in her words anymore. "Of course. You always know everything."

"Of course I do," Evangeline declared proudly. "Shortly after binding me to Mahora, that man cultivated the friendship of a girl who lived near the Academy. It was a real slap to my face; further proof he'd never cared for me. Not like I needed it," she added quickly, sharply, and rather unconvincingly. "Hasegawa Sora. That was her name."

Chachamaru looked on in quiet shock. "You mean -"

Chisame began to sob again. "Yes. Yes, damn it! I'm Negi-sensei's half sister. I'm Negi's sister, and I'm in love with him! I'm in love with a ten year old boy and he's my brother! I'm so sick!"

The gynoid made a strangled sound that sounded far too human. But she never once let go of her embrace.

Eva remained still, seeing all the defenses that the girl had thrown up against the world, both the image of the bubbly Internet idol and facade of the snarky hacker, fall away beneath grief. _So weak,_ the vampire mused, _but there is beauty in weakness, too. Who should know better than I that everything that is beautiful ... bleeds._ She waited until this latest crying fit slowed to a few painful sobs, then reached up with a hand and stroked her right cheek, almost tenderly. "Don't cry like that ever again," she said softly. "No child of that man should ever act that way."

"Screw it," Chisame rasped. "I'm not his child, not like Sensei is. I don't belong to anyone, and no one belongs to me. I'm alone, and will always be."

"No," Chachamaru said firmly. "You'll never be alone, so long as I can help it." She placed a soft peck on Chisame's left cheek, making the girl shudder. Normally, she'd have cried bloody murder about it, but she couldn't fight it, or anything else, anymore.

"Are you sad because you won't be able to be the Boya's mate now?" Evangeline asked bluntly.

That got a reaction out of Chisame, even if a small one. "It's not, it's not that! I-I never would have had a chance anyway. I know ... We all know ... that he loves Asuna," she said dejectedly. "First girl wins. What a shock." Though she couldn't forget the first time she'd seen him, his first time on campus, and the strange, incomprehensible way the sight of him had brought tears to her eyes ...

"And so?" Eva replied. "Kagurazaka is also related to him."

"But she isn't his sister!"

Evangeline let a chilling laugh out. "How little you know!"

"Huh?" The human girl blinked.

"Let me tell you a few truths about Boya's family. Oh yes, I know things they don't even suspect I might know. I'm not the mistress of evil for nothing."

Then she reached up and cupped Chisame's face between her hands, pulling it towards hers. "But first, all information demands a payment."

"Wha- what are you -" Chisame started, and then Evangeline was deeply kissing her lips, sneaking her tongue into her mouth hungrily.

Hasegawa lost any will to resist. Chachamaru was kissing the back of her neck, pressing her round breasts tighter against her back, her hard nipples poking at her wet skin. And it all felt so wonderful, and most of all, she wasn't alone.

"Eva ... Eva-sama ..." she hoarsed, her hands wandering down to caress the vampire's small, tight bottom. The tiny blonde hummed, then moved her mouth to her right nipple, biting on it hard enough to make it bleed. Chisame yelped, but then Chachamaru pressed her mouth against hers. She was lost in the feel good sensation even as Eva sucked the blood of her mammary like a newborn, and then maneuvered herself so their womanhoods were rubbing against each other. Chisame shuddered in sublime ecsatsy.

Evangeline grunted with satisfaction as her vagina rubbed again and again against Chisame's own. If she couldn't have the Thousand Master, then she'd have his children.

All of them.

Forever.

They wouldn't leave the furo for hours.

**Next** : Ayaka


	7. Ayaka

Returning home was always the best part of any journey. Yukihiro Ayaka imagined that many of her classmates could definitely attest to that, after their recent odyssey, and she was finding it so herself, after her still more recent, if much shorter one. The journey had been pleasant, and the destination had been intriguing. She still wasn't sure why her parents had chosen the Howard Resort as their point to rendezvous with her, in the wake of the events at the academy, but it hadn't been without interest.

She was too young (and, to be perfectly honest, much too smart) to engage in any gambling, but the staff were scarcely likely to stop the eldest daughter of the Yukihiro Zaibatsu from wandering about the casino floor and taking in the sights. The atmosphere hadn't been what she'd expecting, not an air of desperation and despair punctuated by occasional bursts of glee. It had been much more pleasant, as though winning and losing weren't really anyone's concern, as though the games themselves were enjoyable.

Perhaps that odd atmosphere had something to do with the so-called Goddess of Victory who worked at that particular resort. Ayaka had met the young woman and socialized briefly, and found her to be an excellent and congenial host. But the student had been more focused on the upcoming meeting with her mother and father, and so after a few brief pleasantries that only took half an hour, she'd parted company with her right before another beautiful female dealer with oddly mixed blonde and purple hair had walked up to the "Goddess", said, "Fuck it, I just don't care," and kissed her soundly.

Americans. Go fig.

In any event, she'd had a pleasant visit with her father, and an ... informative one with her mother, and now she had come home. Nor, she soon realized, was she the only one returning this afternoon. "Konoka-san," she said cheerfully as she saw her classmate across the train station's concourse. "And Setsuna-san, too! What a pleasant surprise!"

"Iincho!" Konoka answered her greeting with a vigorous wave. Setsuna, whose expression oddly resembled one who expected the gods to strike her down with divine retribution, waved somewhat more hesitantly. They were accompanied by a distinguished looking gentleman in a jacket and trousers who had an expression strangely like Setsuna's. "This is Daddy," Konoka introduced him, glomping onto his side.

"Ah, the revered Elder of the East, former member of the famous Ala Rubra, and swordmaster of the Shinmei-Ryu, Konoe Eishun," Ayaka replied, bowing deeply. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir."

"And you must be the remarkably well-informed Yukihiro Ayaka, Class Representative of 3A," Eishun replied, answering her bow perfectly.

"I try to be," she answered cheerfully. "Of course, some people, no one present, of course, have been known to make that more difficult than it has to be. If I might be so bold as to inquire, what brings you to Mahora, Konoe-sensei?"

"Daddy is here to visit with Asuna and Negi-sensei," Konoka promptly explained, then added as an afterthought, "And also to pay his respects to and visit with Arika-sama. And then visit some of our other friends. And maybe a little visit with the Headmaster, too."

Ayaka wondered why Setsuna made a strangled sound at that. It seemed like a pleasant family reunion. "Well, I hope your visits are pleasant ones. Are you heading back to the dormitory right away?"

"We're going to get Daddy checked into his hotel room first. Make sure he got a good one, with a nice comfy bed, and all that," Konoka replied, and smiled sweetly up at her father, who swallowed and smiled back, a little uneasily. "Maybe we'll see you again tonight," she added.

"I look forward to it," Ayaka said easily, and with a little more small talk, they parted ways as she got into the limousine to take her the rest of the way to the dorms. A bit extravagant, maybe, but after several hours on a train, she was ready for a little luxury.

The limousine delivered her to the front door, and she went in and up to her floor. In the distance, she saw Asuna moving slowly through the hallway to her and Negi-sensei's room, dressed in odd clothes that didn't really suit her. She considered calling out to her, but the other girl looked fairly tired, and frankly, so was Ayaka. So she let her frenemy pass from view and headed in to the room she shared with Chizuru and Natsumi.

As well as, she was somewhat annoyingly reminded as she opened the door and saw the petite freckled actress sitting on the couch and watching tv with a short obnoxious boy-creature, Natsumi's unfathomably annoying younger brother, Kotaro. Hmm. Odd. She didn't remember Natsumi being a fan of Kamen Rider before this. And the two of them were seated oddly close together. If she didn't know better, she'd have sworn that ... no, never mind such ridiculous ideas.

"Tadaima," she announced.

"Welcome back, Iincho," Natsumi said brightly, smiling widely.

"Remember to leave your broom and pointed hat at the door," Kotaro added, not taking his eyes off the TV.

Ayaka shook her head as she slipped off her shoes. "Oh, brat," she said with false fondness. "You are lucky that I am too tired and in too good of a mood to rise to your baiting. How are you and your dear widdle brother doing, Natsumi-san?"

"We're fine. I'm pretty sure that stuff back at home is going to get resolved really soon, so Kotaro-kun can head back."

"Speed the day," Ayaka murmured. "Is Chizuru in? I need to talk with her."

Natsumi nodded, and Ayaka headed over to their other roommate's private room, knocking on the door.

"Enter freely, of your own will," came the answer.

Ayaka did so, leaving Natsumi and Kotaro to their own devices. The wolf-boy growled at the back of her. "How come she can figure every damn thing else out and still be clueless about me not being your little brother?" he whined.

"I don't know," Natsumi admitted. "But unless you want to get kicked out before we can find you somewhere else to live, we've got to keep up the pretense. Besides, it's not really that troublesome, being my little brother, is it?" She batted her eyelashes.

"Well, no," Kotaro said, grumpily.

"Okay, then. Where we were?"

They resumed kissing passionately.

People who didn't know Naba Chizuru very well might expect her room to be filled with the usual appurtenances of a teenage girl's bedroom - stuffed animals, posters of boy bands, frills and laces. Those who knew of her interest in astronomy might have expected her to have one or two star charts or a lunar globe. Very few would predict that every wall and much of the ceiling would be covered with those star charts, along with photos from every major astronomical probe of the past century, with nary a stuffed animal in sight. People thought astronomy was her hobby. It was her passion.

At the moment, Chizuru was seated at her computer terminal watching the feed from the Mars rover intently. She nonetheless turned and smiled gently in Ayaka's direction. "Welcome back, ojousama," she said.

"Been ages since you called me that," Ayaka murmured. "My father sends his regards."

"Nice of him. How was your mother?"

Ayaka closed her eyes and sighed. "Not good. I don't think it'll be much longer."

"I'm very sorry."

"She knows, too," Ayaka continued, opening her eyes. "I think that's why she chose to have a very interesting conversation with me."

"She told you, then?"

"Oh, good grief, you knew?" she said crossly.

"Servants know everything," Chizuru reminded her easily. "It's a basic survival skill. I honestly didn't think it would ever make a difference, even after ..." She trailed off and shrugged expressively.

"Even after the son of my biological father showed up to be our teacher?" Ayaka supplied.

"Pretty extreme longshot, I thought," Chizuru said with a little laugh. Then, still smiling, she asked the question. "Are you okay?"

Ayaka sat down on the edge of Chizuru's bed. "I don't know," she answered honestly. "When she told me, I felt ... incredibly happy. Negi-sensei is my little brother, even if he doesn't know it, and that fills me with so much joy. And yet ... before this, even when I learned just how dangerous his life can be, I wasn't really worried. But now he is my little brother ... and I'm scared for him."

She sighed, shook her head. "This must be how Asuna-san feels all the time, I think. And of course, I also feel like a fraud, living on my father's ... he's a good man. He doesn't deserve to be cuckolded like this."

"He's a good man," Chizuru agreed, not adding, _as good as someone like him can be._ "But you should remember, he knows what he chooses to know, Ayaka." She fell silent, considering, then nodded decisively. "You don't know this, but Yukihiro-sama and his wife tried to have children for years before you came along. And just like ... that other time ... it never worked out well. I think they're just a bad match, genetically speaking. But he loves her -" _Or loves what she brought to the marriage._ "- and she loves him -" _Or loves the luxury of being his wife._ "- and they chose to stay together."

"You think he knows?" Ayaka asked quietly.

"I don't know what he knows. I've had exactly three conversations with him in my life, and two of them were about dinner preparations when I was working on the kitchen staff. But I do know that he cares about you." _Or doesn't want the person he's decided, for whatever reason, to make his heir, going unwatched._ "Because that was the third conversation, when he told me to come here and look after you."

Ayaka pulled up her legs and rested her chin on her knees. It made her look ridiculously childish. "Do you resent it? Being my guardian. Would you rather be out there, letting people know that you're really eighteen -"

"I'm _seventeen_ ," interrupted Chizuru.

"- and going to high school instead of dawdling along in junior high with me?"

Chizuru got up from her desk, came over to the bed and sat down in front of her friend. "I was almost twelve years old when I was pulled out of school and set to work as a maid in your household. Four years later, they gave me this assignment. I'm not ready for high school. This is where I belong. And because of it, I have the stars, and I have the children. The last two years have been the best years of my life. I don't resent anything. Certainly not you."

They smiled quietly at each other.

"Sleep with me?" asked Ayaka quietly. "Just sleep, not any of that other stuff. I'm just too tired to face unpacking in my room, changing the sheets on the bed, they're probably all dusty ..."

Chizuru leaned forward to press a kiss between Ayaka's eyebrows, and got up to turn off the computer. "Just sleep," she agreed.

"We're too mature for such silly games," Ayaka said seriously.

Chizuru, well aware of which of them usually started such silly games, nodded seriously. They stripped down to their underwear and slid under the bedcovers together, falling into a spoon-like position by long practice, with Chizuru resting behind Ayaka. The blonde fell asleep first, and her breaths gradually lulled the other girl into somnolence as well.

Hours later, she was awakened by the sensation of a hand moving slowly up and down one of her thighs. "I thought you said just sleep," she murmured. "I thought you said we were too mature."

"I'm a woman, and I get to change my mind," Ayaka answered, rolling over to face her. "And I'm not tired anymore."

"Well, then." Chizuru leaned forward to press their lips together, and slid a hand down her partner's stomach.

Neither of them talked much for a while.

When they were both spent, Ayaka returned that kiss (or technically, since there had been many kisses to many parts of their bodies in that interval, gave one more) and settled down against Chizuru's breasts, falling gently to sleep once more.

When she was sure that Ayaka was past hearing, Chizuru spoke again. "You don't know how glad I was when I found out that you weren't Yukihiro-sama's daughter. I've watched you grow up, and I never could have imagined how dear you would become to me. I am so glad that you're the Thousand Master's daughter, and not Yukihiro-sama's. Not the child of the man who molested my mother when she was just sixteen.

"I have my stars, I have my children, and I have you. I love you so much, Ayaka. I am so glad we're not sisters. Because I know that I could never give you up, even if we were."

She settled in, resting her chin against the top of Ayaka's head, and slowly drifted into the sea of stars.

**Next:** Akira


	8. Akira

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is primarily the work of OverMaster.

Two girls walked down the street under identical umbrellas, approaching the residence of Professor Akashi.

"Calm down, Akira," Izumi Ako asked, looking up at her much taller friend. "I'm sure Yuna is fine. So she hasn't answered our calls, so what? She often turns her phone down when she doesn't want to be bothered."

"I'm completely calm," Okuchi Akira said, in a seemingly even and unfazed voice. But Ako knew her better than that. Akira's emotions were usually very subdued and subtle, and you had to read between the lines to know when she was anxious. This was one of those times. "But something still tells me this is abnormal. She never spends that long cleaning."

"You know that place brings back memories. Maybe she decided to stay there for the night. She used to do that all the time. Plus, you know, it's raining out here."

"That's the weirdest part," Akira said. "When I came home from my indoor pool practices, I found Yuna had been there minutes ago, then left. I saw the water puddles she left all over the carpet, and her closet was open, with some of her clothes missing. It couldn't have been long since she had left."

Ako made a thoughtful sound. "I see. That is kind of strange."

"In any case, even if she's just cleaning, she could use our help," Akira continued, smiling her usual small smile. "And our company. Alone here all night long, with nothing but memories of her mother to distract her ... that has to be difficult for her."

Ako giggled. "Or she could be eating huge amounts of popcorn and watching gunfight movies on TV."

Akira laughed back, softly as ever. "Maybe you're right. I guess I worry too much at times."

Either way, they were at the house's doorstep now. Akira reached up with a fist and knocked twice; there wasn't a doorbell in sight anywhere. Akashi-sensei was an old fashioned man, after all. "Yuna? It's us, Ako and Akira," she called.

There was absolutely no answer whatsoever.

"Yuna," Akira called out, knocking again, now a bit louder. "Are you there, Yuna?"

Again, no one answered, but Ako made a puzzled face and held a hand up. "Akira, wait. I think I hear something from the inside."

"You do?" Akira paid closer attention, soon sticking her ear to the door's frame. "Yes, I think you're right. I think it's Yuna's voice and ... something else, but I can't make it out."

Ako's expression shifted to one of nervous uneasiness. "Akira ... it sounds ... it sounds like ..."

"Yuna!" Akira knocked rather harder now, raising her voice. "Yuna, I know you're in there! Can you hear me?"

Ako's visage was paler. "Akira-chan, maybe we'd better leave now."

"Leave? Yuna might be in some sort of danger!" Since the events in Mundus Magicus, she had learned to stay alert at nearly all times. (Which might be contributing to her anxiety, since that sort of vigilance was kind of tiring, even for her.) But Negi-sensei still had many powerful enemies, ones who could choose to strike at him through them. She began to pound at the door. "Yuna! _Yuna!_ "

Ako grabbed her by an arm and pulled her back. "Akira-chan, no. Please. I think I know that kind of sound." Her cheeks were crimson red. "We might be violating ... Yuna's privacy."

"What do you mean?"

Ako looked down, stammering, "W-Well, you know! We're at that age where it's just ... natural for us to ... experiment ... and, well ..."

Akira frowned. "What are you trying to imply?"

"Umm, p-please, Akira! D-Don't make me to say it!"

Akira arched an eyebrow above her frown. "Ako! Yuna can be a bit shameless at times, but she isn't that kind of girl. Do you think she'd bring a boy here, to her father's own house, just to ... to ..." She trailed off as she saw that Ako's face showed that she was really offended by those last few words, even though she tried to hide it.

"Ako?" Akira said hesitantly. "Did I say something wr-"

Ako turned around sharply and stomped away.

"Ako!" Akira dashed after her. "Wait! What did I say?"

The shorter girl sniffled before stopping abruptly. "'That kind' of girl..."

"Eh?"

Ako let out a short sob. "What 'kind' of girl, Akira? A 'vixen'? A 'harlot'? Do you think you need to be that kind of girl to do that kind of thing?"

"Ako, I don't understand you. What-"

The assistant nurse rubbed her eyes. "I'm sorry. I overreacted. It's my own fault. I never told you, but I should have-"

"What do you mean?"

"Akira-chan, I ... I am not a virgin anymore."

"What?" Did she know -

"It happened after Negi-sensei saved the Magical World, and everyone was brought back." The shy nurse looked way down, struggling to get the words out. "I was so happy to see Tohsaka-san again, and he was happy to see me again, too. Mostly, I was glad to see he'd changed so much. He promised me he'd change his ways, even drop the slave business. And I realized how much he had come to matter for me. He sacrificed himself for me. And so ... I decided to give myself in body and soul to him."

"B-But Ako! That's-!" _With a man more than twice her age who lived in Fantasyland?_

Ako held a hand up again. "Don't blame him. It was my idea. He tried to oppose it at first, but then he said he'd fallen in love with me as well. After we ... did it, he asked for my hand in marriage. But I knew I couldn't stay with him. I couldn't abandon my family ... or Negi-sensei. Because as much as I love Tohsaka-san, I still love Sensei even more."

She began to cry bitterly. "Oh, Akira! I'm so wicked and twisted, leading two men on at once!"

Akira sighed, hugging her warmly. "There, there. Don't be so harsh on yourself. You're a wonderful person, Ako. You have nothing to be ashamed about." _After all, Misa has five men wrapped around her finger at any given time, and she's still a good person. Sort of._

Back at the Akashi house, a sweaty, now fully naked professor laid on his back looking at the door. "Eh? Yuna, did you hear something?"

"Must have been the rain," she purred, already eager for more, rubbing herself against his side. "Again, Daddy. Come on, make your girlie happy ..."

He exhaled a sigh. "Again? Yuna, we really shouldn't-"

"Liar," she said, mischievously crawling over him, straddling his hips and pulling her shirt and bra off, baring her now full nudity to his amazed eyes. "That's not what you were saying moments ago while you pushed your thing into me again and again. Make me yours again, Dad. You know you want it too."

He breathed in, running his hands over her full breasts, playing with the nipples between his fingers. "You've grown so much ..."

"Yeah. We haven't taken a bath together in years, have we? Nnnghhh," she said, pushing herself down on his stiff member. He grabbed her by the hips, keeping her in place as she started bouncing up and down. "Ohhh, yes. Oh, this feels so wonderful," she panted, sticking her tongue out obscenely.

"Yes," he hissed, pumping in and out of his precious little girl, profoundly grateful for unincanted revitalization spells. "But, when we're done here, we should take a shower together ... and then maybe look for Asuna-kun and ask for her forgiveness."

"Yeah, I guess I was a little too harsh on her," she admitted as his hands rubbed her full, bouncy lower cheeks up and down. "Maybe we should make up to her by -" She shuddered as she felt a finger sneaking up her butt. "OH! DADDY!"

"D-Didn't you like it? Your mother did..." he fluttered nervously.

"Like it? I loved it! Do it again!" She giggled mischievously, lowering her head to kiss his lips.

He couldn't help but try to satisfy her wishes. She was so much like her mother. Well, not in everything. While showering, he learned that unlike his wife, she actually liked copulating while standing and under the flow of water. Maybe they could work a viable compromise out for this kind of thing ...

* * *

Both Ako and Akira were completely wet by the time they reached Akira's dorm room; the umbrellas only helped a little. Ako's dorm was further away, and it still was raining too hard. Ako called Makie and told her she'd be staying for the whole night. The good natured gymnast had just told her it was okay, and that she should enjoy her time there. Ako thanked her before cutting the call and addressing her tall friend again.

"Well, I ... I think that's all I had to confess," she said, drooping down on the couch, wiping pale wet hair off her forehead. Akira handed her a towel, and she began rubbing her head dry. "Thank you. You know, now I'm thinking you were right about Yuna. About her maybe being in danger, you know. Maybe I was -"

"No, I think it's exactly what it sounded like." Akira shook her head. The memories of Yuna's own excited confession, about her sexual debut with that wolf-man, weighed on her mind as a reminder that, yes, Yuna could, indeed, do those kind of things at times, despite Akira's standard initial reluctance to admit it.

Ako also wondered exactly why was Akira so sure about it now, but preferred not pressing on the matter. Her friend sighed and told her, "You should take a hot shower. To prevent a cold, you know."

"M-me? Oh, no, you go first!" Ako said. "It's your house, after all."

"You sure you won't mind?" Akira asked. Normally, she'd have insisted further on the first turn being Ako's, but she felt so cold, and not only because of the rain water, the offer was too tempting to outright reject it.

"I'll be fine!" Ako laughed awkwardly. "I'm not sick any more, Akira. A few minutes like this won't kill me."

"Okay." Akira began to walk for the shower stall. "Yuna still has dry clothes in her closet. You can take whatever you want."

"Thanks, Akira," the petite girl answered.

Akira got into the bath, closed behind herself and pulled her socks off, then her pants and panties, finally her T-shirt and bra. She turned the hot water on and began washing her tensions away, trying to tell herself Yuna was okay, and so was Ako. Still, she couldn't stop worrying about them. She knew too much. She mourned for their innocence, and her own.

It didn't help matters that she knew that neither she, nor Yuna, nor Ako, nor even bubbly Makie had probably not been genuinely virginial even before their trip to the Magical World. When the truth about Negi-sensei had come out, she'd made him sit down and tell her everything ... including what he knew about that night she couldn't remember at the start of the second year, about how Evangeline had used Makie and the rest of them as slaves. And somehow, she knew that Evangeline had not restricted herself to delicate bites on their necks and enforced cosplay.

But that was nothing as compared to the idea of Ako and Yuna having sexual encounters with grown men ... men pounding on their bodies, taking what remained of their innocence forever ... taking their sweaty, naked bodies and making them true women. That idea made her feel so ... uncomfortable ...

And yet, she couldn't shake it off. She kept on picturing Yuna's buxom body being taken again and again, and a naked Tohsaka-san pumping into Ako, roughly claiming her as his own, and it made her feel a strange tingling between her legs. Akira moaned, sneaking a hand down to her most private place. She began rubbing up and down, her breath becoming heavy and raggedy, her other hand pinching and squeezing her hardened nipples.

She pictured herself in Ako's place, lying under Tohsaka-san's pumping body, and then as Yuna. Then her thoughts treacherously wandered over to Negi-sensei, imagining it was him inside of her instead of her fingers, and it all was so wrong, but it also felt so magnificent. She began wondering how it would be, to be surrounded by all of them, their hands traveling all over her body, caressing herself ...

She moaned, reaching climax on her fingers, falling down to her knees, panting and wheezing. And then the shower's door flew open.

"Akira!" A concerned Ako stormed in. "Are you okay? I heard-!"

Then the nurse recoiled, seeing her friend there, naked, cheeks flushed, with her fingers still inside herself, her thighs shiny with a mixture of water and her juices.

They looked at each other with a startled mix of confusion, shame and fear.

And then they flew into each other's arms at once, kissing clumsy but passionately. They just couldn't hold it anymore.

Akira had wanted that for that so long, ever since that time they hugged naked at the baths of the slave house, when she was comforting Ako over Nagi-san's true identity, and, incredibly, her friend had tried, in her grief, to comfort Akira about what silence had cost the swimmer. Ako was so small and so beautiful, even down to her scar, and so sweet and so courageous as well. She couldn't help but rip the clothes off her body, then kissing and licking her small perky breasts, even as Ako sighed lovingly, running her hands all over Akira's back.

They kissed again, and that was only the beginning.

* * *

Early that morning, Makie woke up to notice it had stopped raining, and Ako was stumbling through the door, clearly spent but smiling and shyly flushed, her hair in disarray and wearing clothes that were too big for her. "Ako-chan?" the pink haired gymnast yawned. "You look like you didn't get much sleep."

"No ... no, I didn't," her friend stated without any regrets.

"Then have some more sleep," Makie turned around in her bunk, tightening the covers around herself. "It isn't a school day today. Rest as much as you need."

"Yes, I'll do just that." Ako took her shirt off and slumped down into her own bunk, quickly falling asleep with a goofy grin.

Makie wondered exactly what could have kept her up all night long, from the looks of it, but then shrugged it off and fell asleep again.

 **Next:** Nodoka.


	9. Nodoka

From earliest childhood, Miyazaki Nodoka had loved books. In complete honesty, she could say that if given a choice between dying and never reading again, she would have been unable to choose between two identical options. She had dreamed all her life of coming to a vast library, like this Library Island, and being entirely surrounded by books. And here she was, living the dream.

She was cold, and she was lonely.

Not alone, though, but Chamo-kun respected her wish for peace and quiet as she completed her latest self-assigned research assignment. He lay on the table, curled up in a circle, seemingly asleep. He wasn't fooling her for an instant, but she honored his sincere attempt by leaving him be. She had other matters to concern herself with.

She glanced down at one of the books she'd brought to read for pleasure - faint echoes of the pleasure that a good book had given her, not so long ago - and found the words of an ancient English poet to well-describe her mood.

_He who is companionless_  
 _Seeks oftentimes the mercy_  
 _The grace_  
 _Of the creator, God._  
 _Sad, sad the faithful man_  
 _Who outlives his lord._  
 _He sees the world stand waste_  
 _As a wall blown on by the wind,_  
 _As an empty castle, where the snow_  
 _Sifts through the window-frames,_  
 _Drifts on the broken bed_  
 _And the black hearth-stone._

Nodoka was companionless. Konoka was off being a lesbian with Setsuna. Haruna was engaged in manga activities. And Yue ...

Yue was gone.

It wasn't right, what had happened. They'd saved two worlds, countless people. Evil had been vanquished, or at least thwarted. The evil-doers had been shown the errors of their ways, or at least been persuaded that their opponents were not to be underestimated again in the future. Everything should have been sunshine and lollypops.

She had been sure that if Yue just came back to Mahora, all the problems her dearest friend and rival in love was having with her memory would fade away like a bad dream on awakening. And Yue had agreed to do so. Or at least, had not disagreed. Looking back, she could see something false about the smile on Yue's face that night before they went to bed.

Nodoka had awakened in the middle of the night to find Yue standing by her bedside, dressed in a nightgown, shining like a perfect doll in the moonlight that crept in through the doors of the hotel room. She had opened her mouth to ask Yue what was the matter, when the other girl had reached down with a single finger to press its tip against her lips, stilling them, as her other hand reached up to the collar of her gown.

It dropped to the ground around her feet, leaving nothing but Yue in the same way that she'd come into the world. And she had leaned down and followed her finger with her own lips, falling down onto Nodoka and gently pulling the other girl out of her own pyjamas. Yue had resisted, just a bit, thinking that this was like something in one of the more ero-ero mangas Haruna had pressed on them from time to time, and that any moment Yue would turn into some sort of tentacle monster.

But that had not happened, and the feeling of Yue's kisses on her lips, on her breasts, on her stomach and down there had robbed Nodoka of any will to resist. Three little fingers entered her, and a thumb rubbed her precious pearl even as a tongue delicately licked it. She had been sure that someone would think she was dying when she screamed her release to the heavens.

"Where did you learn to do that?" she asked Yue when she could speak again.

"I read a book," Yue answered, bluntly, sweetly, unmistakably the girl with whom she wanted to share Negi-sensei forever. And so Nodoka repaid the tribute that Yue had paid to her body in kind, though she was sure that nothing she could do to the other girl could possibly give her as much pleasure as she'd just been given. But Yue's cries had indicated that she at least found it somewhat fulfilling.

Face to face, stomach to stomach, vulva to vulva, they'd ground together, as though trying to become one person, caring nothing for anything beyond the walls of their room, only each other. If the world had ended that instant, Nodoka would have died content.

But it didn't. And the next morning, as the sun streamed in through the same window that had admitted the cool light of the moon, she awoke to find herself alone, with a note on the bedside table.

_Nodoka,_ it read - not _Dearest Nodoka,_ not _My Darling Nodoka,_ just her name and nothing else - _I cannot go with you and the others to Mahora. I have responsibilities in Mundus Magicus, at Ariadne. I swore an oath. I will not break it._

_You cannot come with me, either. You have a life in Mundus Vetus. I do not, anymore. That life is lost to me. What we had last night must be our forever. I will think of you often. Hate me if you have to. I do love you._

_Yue Farandole._

She had never imagined a simple name could cause her to weep so. The others, when they learned that Yue had gone back to Mundus Magicus with the others, had thought Nodoka was weeping for the loss of her friend. Only Haruna, perhaps, had suspected the truth, and if she had, then for once she showed compassion by not pressing for for the sordid details.

Two weeks had passed, and misery still gripped her. The rain today was a perfect echo to the pain in her heart. But she was determined to move past her misery.

"Nodoka-san?" Negi asked from where he had walked up beside her without her realizing it.

Unfortunately, one of the things on the other side of misery is farce. Nodoka yelped in surprise, and the papers on the desk went everywhere, most fluttering to the floor. Seeing hours of work go helplessly out of order, she let out a groan.

Chamo opened an eye, muttered, "And the circus begins again," then stretched and got up.

"Sorry, sorry!" Negi said, obviously embarassed as he got down on his knees and started to gather up the papers. "I should have realized you were deep in your work."

"No, no," Nodoka quickly denied as she slid off the chair and also started to pick up paper. "I shouldn't have let myself get so wrapped up in it that I lost awareness of my surroundings." _Oh, please, sensei, don't look too closely at what I've been researching._

He was giving some of the pages an odd gaze while crawling around on the floor. Not looking where he was going, he almost bumped face first into Nodoka's rear end. Recent events had given him a greater appreciation for the female form, and he found said rear end very tempting. Aware of the fact that Chamo was watching, however, Negi managed to stop himself from doing anything odd to Nodoka in time, and so he just coughed, alerting her to the fact that he was behind her, and handed her the pile of papers that he'd gathered. The situation had managed to completely distract him from what he'd read.

"So, how are you, Nodoka-san?" he asked, returning her smile of thanks. "I know that you're probably missing Yue-san a lot."

Her smile didn't fade even as it became a lie. _No, you don't know, you only think you know._ "Thank you for worrying, sensei, but I'm determined to move past the sorrow. That's what you'd do, after all."

He blushed. "Well, I can't say much to that. I'm glad you're feeling better, though. Has Chamo-kun been good company while this has been happening? I'm sure that he appreciates having a way to get away from okaasama."

"Aniki! I am not afraid of your mother!" Chamo protested loudly.

Nodoka and Negi both gave him a dubious look.

"I have a healthy respect for her that I express through avoidance," Chamo insisted.

"He's fine, he's been very quiet while I've been working," Nodoka assured her teacher as she got up. "That's the best company you can ever give someone while they're deep in study."

"Oh, good," Negi said as he also got up. "Well, you probably want to get back to work, so I'll -"

"Sensei," Nodoka interrupted. "There's one thing I need to tell you, before you go."

She had his immediate and total attention. "Yes, Nodoka-san?"

_Deep breath. Don't panic._ "Sensei ... I loved you."

He blinked, almost stepped back as if struck. "Wait ... what? You ... past tense?"

"Yes. I still ... you're a wonderful person, Sensei ... but I understand now. It wouldn't be right for me to ask you for an reply to my confession, now. Because there's a person that you care about, isn't there? Someone who's more than just a follower, someone who'll keep up with you, even challenge you, be happy with you, pick you up when you're sad, let you pick them up when they are ... someone who matches you better than I could. You should be with that person, not me. And I'm happy that you have someone like that, even if it isn't me." She smiled, sweetly but sadly.

"Nodoka-san," Negi breathed in amazement. "That's ... that's ... thank you, Nodoka-san."

She kept on smiling, even though her heart ached. _Chisame, you evil bitch, you had better be good to my Negi-sensei,_ she thought. Aloud, she said, "And when I say you ought to be with that person, I mean, you ought to be with them, right now." Impusively, she hugged the small teacher, but let go before the urge to hold on became too strong for her to resist.

Dazedly, he nodded. "You're a wonderful person, too, Nodoka-san," he said. He turned and walked away. She watched him go, loving each step that he took.

"Okay, jouchan," said Chamo once Negi was well out of earshot. "What's the deal here? I can tell you're still crazy in love with aniki, so why the dumpage?" He lit up a cigarette.

"No smoking in the library," Nodoka replied, taking the tube out of his hands and crushing it before he could even inhale. "And I made a promise to Yue, that we'd compete fairly for Negi-sensei. If she's not here, that's not a fair competition." She started to reorganize her papers.

"Are you crazy? Not a fair competition? Haven't you ever heard -"

"Chamo-kun," she interrupted him before he could say the obvious cliche. "You say that magical ermines can read people's hearts. Have you _really_ taken a close look at mine?"

The ermine blinked, turned round and pulled a scroll out of Nodoka knew not where, rolling it slightly open to consult it. He promptly did a double-take. "Wha?" he said.

"That's right," she said, putting the papers in a red file marked, "Operation Yue" and then carefully sliding the file into a plastic bag to protect it from the rain.

"Oh," said Chamo. "Well. This changes things. Hm. We gots ta get her back."

"Eh?" said Nodoka, pausing as she pulled on her raincoat.

"Reference to a movie you've never seen," Chamo breezily answered. "Trust me, it pertains."

"Oh, well, then. Chamo-kun, what I'm about to do is really very dangerous, so you don't have to come with me for it. This is my personal business, after all, and Negi-sensei wouldn't be happy if I risked his friend's life."

"Ah, come on," the ermine said dismissively as he leaped onto her shoulder. "How dangerous could it possibly be?"

* * *

Negi quickly zipped back home, eager to follow Nodoka's advice. Dashing up the stairs, he was surprised to see Asuna coming out of their room, having not changed from the outfit she was wearing when he last saw her. Her expression was one of profound shock.

"Asuna-san!" he said, attracting her attention. Then, considering his words carefully, he asked her. "Has okaasama told you, yet?"

"Yes," she said, hesitantly. "She told me ... she told me quite a bit."

He came forward, close enough to speak to her softly enough so that he wouldn't be overheard. "You're my sister, Asuna-san," he said, willing her to feel the happiness he'd come to feel over the idea.

"Half-sister," Asuna replied uneasily. "And the other half ... is kind of disgusting, don't you think? Negi, doesn't all of this bother you, at all? All the -" She broke off, unable to think of a way to indicate it without actually saying the horrific word.

"Okaasama says, 'When love is mutual -'" Negi began to repeat.

"'- it brings joy, and nothing else matters,'" Asuna concluded. "Yes, she said that to me, too. I'm just not ... I don't ..."

"Asuna-sa- no. _Asuna,_ " he said, adressing her without an honorific for the first time. "I love you, Asuna. Do you love me?"

She gazed down at him, remembering everything from the first moment she'd laid eyes on him to the way she'd cried at the thought of losing him last night. "I think so," she said softly. "But ... I don't know about all of this, Negi. I don't know if I can do what she wants me to do." She shook her head, clearly uncertain, and turned to walk down the hallway.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"I don't know that either," she answered.

Negi wanted to call her name, wanted to beg her to come back with him. But okaasama had told him that young girls need their space, and so he bit back the words, and turned to go back into the dormitory room where, he knew, their mother would be waiting.

* * *

"I can't believe I actually said 'how dangerous could it possibly be'," Chamo groaned as Nodoka walked through the rain towards the cottage where lived the most dangerous person either of them had ever met.

"I told you that you didn't have to come," she reminded the ermine. "You still don't."

"No, I'll see this through to the bitter end," Chamo said gloomily. "And oh boy, I bet it's gonna be bitter."

Nodoka walked up the steps to the door and knocked firmly on it.

Moments later, it swung forcefully open, revealing an irate looking Evangeline in a white bathrobe. "This had better - oh, for fuck's sake, I told you idiots -"

"Hello, Evangeline Athanasia Entheofushia," Nodoka said in an icy voice. From the right pocket of her raincoat she produced a sharp silver dagger. "Blessings be upon this house," she added, in a tone much like another person might say, 'You feeling lucky, punk?'

"Wha?" said Eva, stumbling back a step. "How did you - oh, you little bitch, get out of my mind, right the hell now!"

"Not happening," Nodoka retorted, stepping through the doorway into the cabin proper. From previous visits, she knew the cottage's layout fairly well. The essential step here was to make sure that she always had a clear line of sight for the bathroom, since that was where Chachamaru would be right now. If she let Chachamaru get behind her, this whole thing was doomed.

"Listen to me carefully, lassie, this is not a game you want to be playing with me," Eva said, a bit of Scotland bleeding into her usually flawless accent, as it sometimes did when she was extremely mad. "You might be able to read my mind, but I don't have to think to fight you. I can rely on instinct."

"But you can't do that and be sure that you won't kill me," Nodoka replied evenly.

The pupils of Eva's eyes were tiny dots. "You are making an unwarranted assumption about my regard for your life and well-being, girl."

"No," she said calmly. "I am not." This part, at least, she was certain about. "Killing me will ruin whatever you have with Negi-sensei. He will find out, and when he does, you will have to choose between killing him or damaging him in ways that you don't want to do. If I'm smart enough to realize this, so are you."

Nodoka clutched the silver dagger tightly. "Solid silver, not silver plating," she informed the vampire. "And I had it blessed by Sister Shakti. It won't kill you, but healing its wounds won't be easy or pleasant. I told her it was for protection against a vampire I ran into in the wilds of Mundus Magicus, but I'm pretty sure she didn't believe me. You're not very popular with a lot of people here on campus."

"Imagine my surprise," said Eva coldly, and with a single burst of will that was too quick for Nodoka's artifact to warn her about, sent one of her invisible puppet strands towards her.

It recoiled from her skin.

Eva blinked. "What? How did - that technique has only one counteragent, and -"

"I read a book," Nodoka said, smiling grimly. She had no idea whether the counteragent would last, so she had to move quickly. "Do I have your attention, yet?"

Eva stared at her, fangs very much apparent. "Oh, yes. You do. You are wading in the shallows of my displeasure, little girl, and -"

"I will swim in the depths of your fury if it will get me what I want," Nodoka snapped, finally letting the anger she was feeling out. "I have decided a goal, and I am working towards it. You supposedly respect that."

"Hey, what the hell?" said Chisame as she stumbled, pulling on a robe much too small for her, out of the bathroom. Nodoka could see a fairly obvious hickey on her neck.

_Tramp,_ thought Nodoka furiously. "I don't want to deal with you right now, Chisame-san, so stay out of this," she said aloud.

Abruptly, Eva held up a hand. "You have a goal. Now I'm curious. Put down the dagger, and we'll talk," she said calmly.

Nodoka looked at the hand, clearly held up in a gesture meaning stop. But why - and then she saw all, and cursed herself for her stupidity. "Chachamaru went out the back door and came in the front, didn't she?"

"Yes I did," said the soft voice of the gynoid behind her.

Nodoka knelt down, set the dagger on the ground, then stood up slowly and kicked it towards one of the walls.

"You have a goal," Eva said, affecting not to have noticed any of this. "May I ask -"

"No," Nodoka answered sharply. "I need three things from you. A powerful memory charm, a way to break any memory charm no matter how powerful, and a secret way of getting into and out of Mundus Magicus other than the main portals. Can you do this?"

Eva stared at her, clearly fascinated ... and then started to laugh. "Oh, wow. You kids are _really_ making me feel my age. You'll destroy your friend's life to restore her to this one, even though she's perfectly happy where she is, simply because you miss her. That's one of the most selfish things I've ever even imagined."

"Wait a minute, what?" interjected Chisame.

"To get Yue back, I will become a demon," Nodoka said quietly. " _Can you do this?_ "

"Would anyone mind if I dropped dead of fear right now?" Chamo murmured.

"Not at all," said Eva, smiling broadly. "And yes, yes, I can do this. And the joy of watching you - sweet, innocent you - descend into utter self-serving cruelty is all the reward I could possibly want, so I'll do it for free."

"Fine," said Nodoka, without even a moment's qualm. "Let's begin."

**Next:** Haruna


	10. Haruna

_So let's review,_ thought Kagarazuka Asuna as she wearily slumped through the dormitory's halls. _Negi's mother is also my mother. She had me after her own father raped her when she was twelve. Despite this, she doesn't hate me, she loves me. She loves me so much that she wants to have sex with me and Negi, as well as watching the two of us have sex with each other, and has actually been and probably is right now training Negi to be able to satisfy us._

_This is messed uuuuppppp._

But despite how horrible it all was, she couldn't forget how she'd felt when she found out that Negi actually was her little brother, and the look on his face when he'd told her that he loved her, and the gentle look of Arika's face as the older woman had told her about seeing her born. It had been so ... sweet. The emptiness inside had gone away, for a little while. But if Negi was her brother, shouldn't she be protecting him from this sort of thing? But what if that meant never seeing her mother again?

She didn't know what to do, and the long minutes of thought she'd devoted to the question hadn't helped. She needed advice. Looking around her, she found that her footsteps had led her to the dorm room where Ayaka, Chizuru and Natsumi lived, and she reached out to the door to knock. Maybe Ayaka would be able to -

_"You have the opportunity to have passionate sex with that wonderful boy, a brother to you like the brother I've always yearned for, and you're even thinking about passing it up? You apish fool, Kagarazuka Asuna, you lecher after the elderly! I will give myself wholly to Negi-sensei in your place then! Seize her my minions!"_

\- orrrrr not.

"Ah, come on, what am I supposed to do?" Asuna yelled.

A moment later, the door beside Ayaka's dorm room door slowly creaked open. Asuna flinched, realizing that her outburst had attracted attention, and turned to apologize.

"What's all the hub-bub, bub?" asked Saotome Haruna, hair antenna twitching.

* * *

"My son, you have developed basic proficiencies in the erotic arts," Arika said, once again seated on the other side of the kotatsu from Negi. "You have developed skill with fellatio -"

_Negi was not altogether sure how this constituted training, as he lay back and let his mother rub and lick what she insisted on calling his cock. But the sensation was so wonderful that he couldn't possibly argue._

"- with cunnilingus -"

_Her fingers gently moved through his hair as her hands guided his head to the correct stations on her ... well, she called it her cunt, and it would be rude not to use the same term as she did, even if it seemed inappropriate. But the gentle smile on her face as she looked down on him ..._

"- and with paizuri."

_His little hips moved back and forth as he squatted on her abdomen. He really couldn't see the point of this, and the look on her face suggested she wasn't getting a lot out of it either._

"As yet, you don't really have the size to be effective at paizuri," Arika continued. "But that will come in the fullness of time, and when it does, you will be prepared for it. There remains only the most fundamental of sex acts: intercourse." She rose up and began to undo her skirt. "Let us proceed."

"Um, uh, just a moment," interjected Negi, nervously. "Isn't intercourse how babies are made?"

"Yes, that's so. However, I am presently using certain birth control magics so as to prevent that," Arika lied. "Asuna will be given a tonic for that purpose as well," she lied some more.

"Well, okay, but, still, maybe we ought to wait for Asuna to come back before we -"

Just then the door swung open, but despite Negi's immediate hopes, the person who cheerfully called out "Tadaima!" turned out to be Konoka, cheerfully leading Setsuna and her father into the dorm room.

Eishun stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Arika standing in the middle of the room. "Your majesty," he murmured, and dropped to one knee, bowing his head.

Arika blinked. "Rise, my knight," she said, gently ruffling his hair. "I am queen of nothing, now, and such formality ill-suits old friends such as we. I have already met young Konoka. You have a fine daughter, Eishun."

He lifted his head, turned to look at Setsuna, then returned his gaze to Arika. "I have two."

"Eh?" said Negi.

"Yeah, Setsuna and I are sisters," Konoka confirmed, hugging her mortified bodyguard closely. "Isn't that wild? I still haven't forgiven daddy for not telling us. He's earning his forgiveness, though."

"Oh," said Negi. "Does this mean -"

"No," Konoka answered firmly as Setsuna radiated embarrassment.

"Oh."

The door being left open, it was simple for Yuna to barge in, dragging her father along with her. "Hey, Negi, is Asuna in? I really need to apolo- oh, hey, Konoka, Setsuna."

Professor Akashi blinked in surprise. "Eishun? What brings you to Mahora?" There was just a bit of a chill in his tone.

"Obviously, my daughters do, Wataru," Eishun answered, equally chilly.

"Um ... do you two know each other?" asked Setsuna, uneasy with the way this conversation was going.

"It's probably magical stuff that, hey, wait, daughters?" Yuna asked, blinking.

"Actually," Akashi interjected, "it's not. Um ... not quite sure how to put this ..."

"We are half-brothers. The man my mother married was a randy goat who had numerous affairs, including one with Wataru's mother," Eishun explained.

"Ohhhh," said Konoka. "Hey, that makes us cousins," she said to Yuna, smiling broadly.

"Yeah, it does," Yuna agreed.

They smiled at each other in complete sympatico. Then, simultaneously, they blinked, and stared at each other. "Oh my gosh, you fucked your daddy like I did, didn't you?" they chorused.

"Eh?" said Negi, eyes wide.

"Now, my son, considering what we have done and were about to do, you shouldn't judge," Arika pointed out.

"Eh?" chorused Setsuna and Eishun, eyes wide.

Konoka clapped her hands together, her eyes going starry, as she kicked the door closed. "You know, I just had a really cool idea," she said, smiling incredibly widely.

* * *

"So you won't talk, eh?" said Haruna, glasses gleaming.

"Of course I'll talk," said Asuna irritably. "You haven't asked me anything yet." She'd been pulled in to the room where Haruna lived alone, and was seated at a kotatsu across from the artist, who was wearing a stereotypical beret and had piles of drawings in front of her.

"No, no, we both know how this is going to go," Haruna said, shaking her head. "You refuse to talk, and I slowly but surely wheedle the terrible details out of you, then burst out into laughter at how petty and silly your problems actually are."

"Saotome, I'll tell you what my problems are. You don't have to wheedle." She looked down at the artwork. "What are you drawing, anyway?"

"Trying to distract me? It won't work. I won't tell you all about the Kira/Cagalli doujin I'm hard at work on. I'll never describe the exquisite beauty of their union. I -"

"Wait," said Asuna, who wasn't really all that fond of mecha shows, but had picked up one or two things. "Aren't Kira and Cagalli brother and sister?"

"Yes," Haruna replied, grinning broadly. "Forbidden love is the best kind."

Asuna groaned, and started to get up. "This is pointless. I know what you're going to tell me."

"Huh?" said Haruna, frowning. "What -"

"It's obvious what you'll tell me. You'll want to come along and draw pictures of it happening!"

"Of what happening?" Haruna's frown grew deeper.

"Me having sex with Negi, because Arika wants me to, because she's our mother, his and mine, and she wants to have sex with both of us, and -"

"Asuna," Haruna snapped. "Sit. _Down._ "

Asuna sat, feeling as miserable as ever.

Haruna pulled out her cell phone and slapped it down on the table between them. "Are you going to call the police, or would you rather I did it?"

* * *

"Youngsters nowadays," Akashi sighed, lying flat on his back.

"Yes," Eishun panted, gathering his strength back up. "Then again, it's not like we've any right to talk. We're going along with it, after all."

"Hey, it was your daughter's idea," the teacher replied.

"Yours was very quick to support it!" the swordsman countered.

Resting between them, her legs spread, Arika hummed. "Well. If there's something my years of captivity taught me, it's that there's no low we humans won't sink down to. But it's better to take it in stride. Ready, Negi?"

The boy nodded, grabbing her hips with some residual shyness. "Y-Yes, Ma'am! Are you -?"

Yuuna giggled, straddling her gulping father. "She looks that way from here! Hey, Konoka! We trade places after this, don't we?"

"Sounds good," Konoka said with a smile, getting herself comfortable over Eishun's lower body. She bit her lip as her father's manhood slid into her core. "But what about Negi-kun?"

Negi was already huffing, bouncing back and forth in a steady rhythm, grabbing onto his mother's bountiful round breasts, his eyes nearly rolling back into his head. "Don't ... worry about me. I think ... I'll go for a ... repeat with Mother ... right after this ..."

"That's my boy," Arika purred, running a hand through his hair, then pulling on it, making him moan. He wasn't penetrating far into her.

Setsuna finished stripping down and sighed while sitting on Eishun's face. "Perhaps it'd have been for the best if Cosmo Entelecheia had rewritten us," she mused regretfully, even as his tongue began to caress her private folds, making her skin crawl all over.

But then Konoka leaned forward and claimed her lips, and all protests were forgotten.

* * *

"Call the -" Asuna broke off, staring at Haruna in complete confusion.

"I am really kind of pissed off at you, right now, Asuna, but you need help, so I'm going to keep it under control," Haruna said in a clipped tone. "His mother is doing sexual things with Negi, yes or no?"

"Yes, she said so, and -"

"She's molesting her son. Her ten year old son. And she made a pass at you. And you don't think you ought to call the police on the crazy bitch?" Haruna's voice went up at the end of her question. "What the hell happened to you, you used to threaten iincho if she even made the slightest gesture at Negi, and now you're waffling about what you ought to do about this?"

"Why are you so mad?" Asuna asked, shrinking under Haruna's obvious fury.

"Why am I so mad? What the hell would give you the idea that I'd countenance child abuse? That I'd want to draw pictures of it!"

"You're drawing pictures of brothers and sisters -" Asuna protested, gesturing at the pages.

"These are fictional characters! They're not real, Asuna! They're exactly as old as the paper they're drawn on, or the computer displays where they'll eventually appear! Yes, I write about incest, I draw people doing it, but not real people. Yes, I occasionally have fantasies about my older brother and the women in his life, but the fantasy versions of them that exist in my head are not real people either! I would never, ever look the other way when I saw something like that!" Haruna broke off, breathing heavily. "And you're supposed to be a hell of a lot more moral than I am," she added, accusingly.

"But she's my mother," Asuna repeated, aware that she was whining.

"That doesn't make it better, it makes it worse."

"And she says, she told me, when love is mutual, everything is okay -"

Haruna slapped a hand on the table. "That's crap, Asuna! That's as big a load of crap as 'love means never having to say you're sorry'. You can love people without having to jump in bed with them. I love Konoka and Nodoka and, and okay, I've had fantasies, but I don't go there because it would mess up their relationships, with me and other people. Love is not an excuse to do whatever the hell you want!"

"But if I do what you want, I'll never see her again."

"And that's a bad thing? Asuna, I get that you want a family, what orphan doesn't? But the kind of family where you have to overlook or participate in what you're describing to me, that's not the kind of family you want. Please, Asuna, if you can't call the police, then let me do it. You know it's the right thing to do."

Asuna stared at the phone, wondering if she really did.

**Next:** Negi


	11. Negi

Slowly, Asuna reached out and picked up the phone.

"Okay, you don't want to call emergency on this, because that'll make far too much noise, but I know the number of -" Haruna started to explain.

"I'm sorry, Pal," Asuna said quietly. "They're the only family that I've got." And with that, she jumped up and ran out the door, still holding the phone, before Haruna could do anything.

The artist could only sit and gape. That was her burn phone - her only burn phone. If she wanted to call this in, now, she'd have to use a line that could be traced back to her. "Shit," she muttered. _Memo to self - get new burn phone. Strike that - get two so this doesn't happen again._

Well, maybe it was for the best. On further reflection, the idea of the Mahora police department, even its special investigations division, being forced to confront a wizard like Negi-sensei, was a bit frightening. Nightmare visions of him reanimating dinosaurs and riding them around as people fled screaming flittered through her consciousness. They were very cool nightmare visions, but again, some things were better left as fantasies ...

* * *

Back in a certain room, the party, let's call it, had continued, and a proposed switch had been undertaken. At the moment, Konoka was smiling sweetly up at Akashi while shifting her hips up to meet his vigrorous thrusts into her. "Come on, Wataru-jiisan-sensei," she cried, abusing honorifics terribly. "Show me what you've got! Show me how you're better than daddy!" He wasn't, really. Her father was definitely the best guy she'd ever been with ... much better than Takahata, that time he'd shown up at this very dorm room stinking drunk looking for Asuna when her roommate had been out. Her first guy wasn't even on the charts. But guys liked being told how good they were, right?

Akashi was honestly a little disturbed by her attitude. That Asuna girl had obviously had some sort of personal problems, which was consistent with what he'd heard about her, but what he'd heard about his neice - well, the neice he'd known about - had led him to believe that she was a sweet, innocent girl. Yet here she was, engaging in sex with a man she'd never met and whom she'd learned was her uncle, and despite the sordid nature of the act, her attitude could best described as, well, genki. This just wasn't right. Oh, well.

Over on the other side of the room, Yuna was slowly sliding up and down where she rested above the waist of her newly discovered uncle, looking down at his feet as she did so. It wasn't that she thought Eishun was ugly or anything, although all his scars - how did someone survive some of those injuries? - did make her a little nervous. But this position was the best way to monopolise the attentions of her other partner, down below, licking and teasing at where her body met Eishun's hardness, as Yuna's fingers ran through the swordmistress' hair.

At first, Setsuna had been obviously shocked by Yuna's assumption that the switch would mean that she would get to enjoy both of Konoka's lovers. But she'd followed Konoka's gently voiced suggestion that she go along with it. While Yuna hadn't ever announced the fact, she had always thought that Setsuna was pretty smoking hot. Since learning just how good sex with girls could be, she had been considering ways she might go about insinutating herself into the kendo-girl's scene with Konoka. And here they were, doing just that. Damn, things worked out great sometimes.

Setsuna was miserable. All of her life, she'd only ever wanted Konoka. Okay, she'd occasionally thought appreciative thoughts about Asuna or Mana, and, yes, Negi. And, well, she had had something that felt like an orgasm when she'd finally beaten Tsukuyomi down without killing her, asserting the superiority of her beliefs in the sanctity of life over the other girl's mindless bloodlust. But Yuna? She barely even knew the girl, and even though she was sort of cute, the thought of having sex with Yuna was awful. The thought of having sex with Yuna and Yuna's father was even worse! But the absolute worst part was that she knew that if Konoka smiled at her, she'd do it.

_Konoka-ojousama, I understand why you're punishing your-I-mean-our father, but why are you punishing_ me _like this?_

Eishun was tired. Up almost all night with these two, just a few hours sleep, then the train ride from Kyoto - during which Konoka had insisted on seeing whether they could get away with doing it in the washroom - then the romp in their hotel room, and now all of this. Even a master of the Shinmei-ryu only had so much stamina. Ironically, his current partner didn't even seem to notice his flagging abilities.

Which was understandable; he suspected that, much like his older daughter, and despite her perverse interest in her own father, this Yuna was much more drawn to her own sex than the opposite. He could sympathise, having been the same way in his youth, before he'd met Setsuna's mother. Eventually, she'd probably settle down with some nice, non-threatening boy, much he'd settled with a non-threatening woman, but right now, she was paying much more attention to what Setsuna was doing than what he was.

For his own part, Eishun was paying more attention to what Arika was doing. At the moment, she was in the center of the room, bent over the kotatsu on her stomach as Negi rutted away behind her, murmuring occasional words of lewd encouragement like, "Yes, wonderful, your cock feels so good in my cunt." He sighed and shook his head slightly. He was fallen from what he'd been, all those years ago, but she had fallen further. That the beloved of the Thousand Master should engage in such language, and such debauchery. Still, as he'd said earlier, he had no room to talk.

Abruptly, he was distracted from such contemplations by his orgasm, and the pleasant sigh Yuna gave in response suggested she'd had one in response. He hoped she was using birth control pills, otherwise she could be in for an unpleasant surprise. But he was further distracted from such considerations as she slid free of him - not hard, since he doubted that he was going to be able to have another erection for quite some time, even with magical help - and turned around to cuddle up by his side, avoiding contact with his scars but kissing his cheek.

"You were great, Eishun-sama," she said sweetly. "D'you think all the guys in that Ala-Ruby thing you were in are in great shape like you? Do any of them have cute daughters like yours?"

"Ala Rubra," Eishun corrected her with a weary smile. "And of those who are still alive, well, Takamichi doesn't have any daughters, and I doubt any of the others do, either. I couldn't talk about the other."

* * *

Elsewhere, specifically in Mundus Magicus, specifically yet again in the most secret dungeons beneath Megalo-Mesembria, a certain senator held up his badge of office before a pair of magical sentinels. "When I depart, you will have no memory of my ever having been present," Kurt Godel said to the constructs, and because this was a lawful command, they obeyed him as they stepped aside to enter the cell.

Tsukuyomi had managed to work her body around, despite the encumbrance of chains and shackles, to the point where she was able to scratch at her nose with the little finger of her left hand. "Why, greetings, your excellency," she said cheerfully. "What brings you to call on this my humble abode?"

Ordinarily, under the circumstances, seeing her with that much freedom of motion would have prompted Godel to call for more chains. Many more chains. Under the circumstances, though, that was absurd. "I have come to give an appropriate punishment for your crimes," he said.

"Gonna spank me?" she asked softly, eyes like slits. "You used to like that, as I recall. You used to like doing all sorts of things to me, actually."

He sniffed dismissively. "You are no longer my type, Tsukuyomi - if you insist upon that ridiculous _nomme de guerre._ "

"That's right, you only go in for ten year olds and older women."

"Something we have in common, if the reports are true," Godel noted with a smirk.

"If you're going to kill me, then get on with it," Tsukuyomi said, growing tired of this as she did of most forms of social interaction that didn't involve the ring of steel or the shedding of blood.

"Quite the contrary. I am going to offer you your freedom, in exchange for a simple task. Should you survive it, you will be free to go your way in peace, so long as you never again cross the laws of this state. And it is a task which you will find diverting - accomplishing someone's demise."

Tsukuyomi perked up. "Whose?"

"The person presently known as Kagurazuka Asuna."

She remembered watching from a distance as the girl with the strange eyes helped her sempai keep her beautiful wings groomed, and seeing the small shudders, and knowing, just knowing, what had just happened ... what she had just done to her sempai ...

"Why, daddy, of course I will. I would pay you for the privelige, if I could. And come to that, I can! My mouth is already free, if you'd like -"

"Not my type, anymore, daughter dearest."

* * *

Elsewhere yet again, this time a bit closer to home, at the Tatsumiya shrine, Mana was busily sweeping the paths. It was probably good for her to cultivate some humility like this. That's what she told herself, at least, while wondering why the shrine didn't have a few other acolytes who could handle such duties while she was away. Because this place clearly hadn't been cleaned in the time that she'd been away.

Still, it was good for her humility. She needed a lot.

Abruptly, her contemplation was interrupted by the sound of breaking glass and the eruption of a car alarm. Almost, she went for the two pistols she kept concealed in her miko robes at all times, but then she heard a clear masculine voice yelling, "Hey, hey, don't blame me that your stuff is so damn breakable, all right? Insurance? No, I don't have insurance. What the hell would I need with insurance? I'm not even too clear what insurance is, to be honest. Oh. You want money? Why didn't you say so! Well, fine, here. What do you mean, it's gold! What the hell are you talking about, legal tender?"

Mana filtered out the rest of the one-sided conversation as she went back to sweeping, even as her teeth began to ache. She supposed that she should have been expecting this. She hadn't managed to hug the shadows over there as much as she would have wanted.

Eventually, the argument came to an end, followed closely by the sound of heavy footsteps climbing the stairs up to the shrine. Mana went right on sweeping.

Eventually, there was the sound of a ridiculously larger than life throat being cleared. "'sup," said Jack Rakan, Hero of a Thousand Faces, looking oddly uncomfortable as he stood beneath the torii gate.

"Welcome to the Tatsumiya Shrine," Mana said in an even and affectless voice, as though reading from a script. "We offer a variety of prayer services, including prayers for health, wealth, love, or finding lost objects."

"You're not going to make this easy, are you," Jack muttered.

"On the contrary, the whole point of Shinto is to make dealing with the kami as easy as possible," Mana continued in that same tone. "You need not know the prayers to address them, we handle that for you, all you need to do is -"

"How's your mother?" he interrupted bluntly.

"Dead," she answered with equal bluntness.

He sighed. "I'd say I was sorry, but we both know it'd make no damn bit of difference. Look, can we go somewhere and talk about all this over some drinks? I could really use some drinks."

"I'm a minor," Mana replied.

"So?"

She stared at him, this hero of song and story, looked at her broom, and tossed it aside. "Eh, why not. I'm humble enough."

* * *

"Good thinking, Yuna," Konoka complimented her new-found cousin as she rode her new-found cousin's dad. "I just hope that some of the other Ala Rubra people are better at this than Takamichi is ..."

"What would you know about that?" Eishun asked, brow furrowing.

"Yes, what would you know about that?" Setsuna asked, teeth clenched.

"Yeah, what, indeed?" Asuna asked from the entrance. She was standing there, surveying the scene with an irritated look on her face.

"Uhhh ... I was really just going by rumor and gossip, really," Konoka lied, having overcome momentary paralysis. She smiled sweetly in Setsuna's direction. Setsuna felt a tiny bit of resistance to believing her ojousama, but it did not suffice, and she smiled back. Eishun was not as easily fooled, and began to consider how he might express his displeasure to Takahata.

"Um, hi, Asuna," said Yuna, abruptly remembering what she'd done to the other girl, and hoping she was not really annoyed. The thought of being punted skywards troubled her thoughts.

In the middle of the room, Negi paused in his labors, falling backwards away from Arika. "Asuna," he murmured.

For her part, Arika remained exactly where she was, bent over the table, looking up at Asuna with an impassive expression. "Well?" she said at last.

Asuna closed the door behind her, and pulled the sweatshirt she'd "borrowed" from Yuna over her head. Then slid the borrowed pants down her legs, and stepped out of them along with her socks. Without a trace of modesty, for everyone present had already seen her naked, in some cases many times, she undid her bra and pulled off her panties. Without pausing, she walked into the center of the room, dropped down to where Negi was and pulled him into an embrace, kneeling with her knees on either side of his hips.

"Do you want this, Negi?" she asked into the silence, looking down at his face where it rested between her breasts. "I'm okay with us just being brother and sister. I'm okay with us just ... _being_ , as long as we're together. But if you want me ... then you can have me, Negi. Because I do love you. I love you so much that it scares me. Well, boya? What's it gonna be? Yes or no?"

"Yes," he said softly, and pushed up as she pushed down, drawing him into her as their lips crashed together in a kiss that left that of the kissing terminator incident far behind.

And then something happened that had never happened to Asuna, as she felt herself grow incredibly wet down there, and knew that he had finished as soon as he began, but it was different, this time, and she couldn't quite breathe, and she felt her muscles grow taut and something in her stomach shifted and melted and finally escaped from her mouth and nose in a silent scream ...

"What ... was that?" she asked when she could think again. Somewhere in all of that, she'd fallen over, still holding Negi tightly. He was far more out of it than she.

"That was an orgasm, my daughter," Arika told her as she stroked Asuna's cheek, from where she was curled up behind her. "Your first, I believe."

"Oh," said Asuna, very aware of Arika's breasts pushing against her back, and the warmth of her breath against her skin. "Are ... are you going to ..."

"Not yet," Arika answered, nuzzling her ear with her nose. "Not until you are ready to accept me, as you have accepted your brother. But I am looking forward to that hour. Are you?"

"Yes," Asuna whispered, realizing that the empty feeling was gone. She didn't know what had taken its place, whether it was love or something else, but she no longer felt hollow and alone.

"Welcome home, my darlings, welcome home," Arika whispered.

**END PART ONE**

**Next: Satsuki**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **OMAKE**
> 
> "Good thinking, Yuna," Konoka complimented her new-found cousin as she rode her new-found cousin's dad. "I just hope that some of the other Ala Rubra people are better at this than Takamichi is ..."
> 
> "What would you know about that?" Eishun asked, brow furrowing.
> 
> "Yes, what would you know about that?" Setsuna asked, teeth clenched.
> 
> "Gross! You had sex with Takahata?" Chisame asked from the entrance. She was standing there, surveying the scene with an irritated look on her face.
> 
> "Uhhh ... I was just going by - wait a minute, Chisame-san, what are you doing here?" asked Konoka, confusedly.
> 
> "And where'd you get that hickey?" asked Yuna.
> 
> "I'm here to talk to ... oh geez, what the hell are you people ... Akashi, isn't that your - no, no, never mind that now, look, Negi, I know it's sick, and wrong, but ... I love you, okay?"
> 
> "What?" Negi asked.
> 
> "I love you!" she repeated. "I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you!"
> 
> "Chisame-san ... are you trying to say that you love me?" Negi asked hesitantly.
> 
> Chisame's eyebrow twitched. She looked at the kitchen, where a gleamingly sharp knife was just lying on the countertop for no readily apparent reason. Then she looked back at Negi. Then back at the knife.
> 
> The remainder of this omake has been replaced by a travel documentary including a section on the Fjord1 ferry. Isn't it a nice boat?
> 
> **OMAKE**
> 
> Unfortunately, even as she dashed out of Haruna's room, Asuna still had no clear idea what to do next. She didn't want to call the police, but she didn't want to go back to her room either. Oh, she thought bitterly, if only there were some way to resolve all these problems easily!
> 
> Not looking where she was going, she ran right into a rather handsome, barefoot man walking around in pyjamas, with the shirt open to expose his chest. Oddly, he didn't seem at all bothered by the impact, remainining standing when Asuna fell back on her butt. He was a little surprised, though. "Oh, hey, are you okay? Sorry, I wasn't really watching where I was going," he apologized.
> 
> "Um, well, I'm fine, I guess, and it's really my own fault for ... running ... um ... sorry ... who are you and why are you wandering around a girls' dormitory in your pyjamas?" It seemed an appropriate question.
> 
> "I'm the god Orum," he explained politely. "This is pretty much what I always wear."
> 
> "You're a god," Asuna repeated.
> 
> "Mm-hm. I'm paying a special visit to one of my worshippers on this plane of existence, Kakizaki Misa-chan. Maybe you know her? Ah, I see you do. Yeah, well, anyway, I don't go in for a lot of finery, sooo ... yeah, pyjamas work."
> 
> "I see," Asuna said. Well, why not, it couldn't hurt, could it? "Um, Orum-kamisama, I humbly crave a boon," she said, trying to be as polite as possible.
> 
> "Well, I did knock you over, so, okay. What I can I do for you, young lady?"
> 
> "You see, I've got a bunch of problems, and -"
> 
> "Say no more," said Orum, and promptly resolved all of Asuna's problems in a way that was completely satisfying to her and everyone else.
> 
> THE END (There's a reason why Deus Ex Machina endings went out of style, you know. Credit to Phil Foglio for Orum.)


	12. Satsuki

After yesterday's furious rain, which had lasted well into the night and actually caused concerns about flooding, it was a relief for Satsuki to see today dawning bright and clear. It wouldn't have made a real difference to her if it had kept raining, since she'd have to open up the restaraunt regardless, but a clear day meant better business for her.

And today she'd had a very special customer coming in first thing in the morning. "This is so exciting," said Sayo as she sat at the counter, waiting for the meatbun to be brought out to her. "I haven't eaten anything in sixty years, and everyone says your food is the best on campus, so I'm really looking forward to this."

Satsuki smiled gently as she set the meatbun down in front of the ghost-driven robot, and said that she hoped it was as good as she was expecting.

"Ittadakimasu, " Sayo said cheerfully, then picked up the meatbun and took a bite. She began chewing vigorously ... then slowed ... then stopped.

Satsuki blinked and asked whether something was wrong.

Sayo swallowed. "Um. I'm, I'm sorry, Satsuki-san. I didn't think ... I'm still getting used to all of this, and the body lets me do almost everything else ... I didn't realize that it wouldn't let me _taste_ your food. I guess ... even science and magic can't do everything, can they? I'm really very sorry."

In two years of operations, Satsuki had never seen such a crestfallen customer, and so she did something extraordinary. She offered to give back her meal tickets.

"Oh, no, no, that's not right, I mean, I did eat part of it, even if it's just going to get processed for biofuel ... um, but, that's sort of gross to talk about ... so, I think maybe I should go before you start to get real people as customers coming in ... see you around ... maybe ..."

Satsuki watched Sayo walk away sadly. It was awful. She'd never had an unsatisfied customer or an unearned meal ticket before this. What should she do?

There really wasn't time enough for her to worry much about it though. Almost as soon as Sayo departed, a large number of customers arrived as a group - Negi and his two roommates, along with his mother and a man whom Konoka introduced as her father, and Setsuna, and Yuna and Professor Akashi. They were all famished, and so she casually worked wonders to get them the food that they needed to build up their strength again.

She did feel a certain amount of curiousity about some of the social dynamics that were at work in this group. Asuna and Negi were as close as they ever were, but there was something a little more intimate about the way that they looked at each other. In pretty sharp contrast, there were some fairly upset looks being directed by Setsuna towards Konoka, who seemed more or less oblivious to them. The two older men also seemed a little unhappy about something, and uncomfortable in each other's presence. The only one she couldn't read at all was Arika.

But despite her curiousity, unless some of them started an argument in her place, their situations weren't any of her concern. It was her job to get them well-fed and make them feel at home, and she bent all of her abilities to that purpose. And when they left, well, some of them seemed in slightly better moods. They'd have to work their other problems out themselves, just like Sayo.

The difference was, she had done everything she could for them ... and she wasn't at all sure that she'd done everything for Sayo. She wondered why it was bothering her so much.

"Satsuki-san?" asked one of her waitresses, who'd come in to help her with the lunch rush. "Are you all right? You were muttering to yourself."

Had she? Well. It wasn't anything for anyone else to worry about. The important thing was to keep hard at work. And so she did, but the image of Sayo walking away all dejected and alone kept coming back to her throughout the day. It didn't impact on her work - or at least so she hoped! - but by the time came to close down for the evening, she was more than a little out of sorts.

Usually, she was tired from a good day's work, and more than ready to head back to the dorm, have a nice bath and then go to bed after some light reading. She was still tired, but the sensation of something left undone haunted her. So rather than head for the train station, she decided to go for a little walk to sort herself out.

Thinking about Sayo took her to the old part of campus, the parts that would have been part of her experience when she was alive. Many of these old buildings were now in very poor repair. She'd even heard rumors that the old clock tower, which had long since stopped telling the time, had been scheduled for demolition, only to be saved at almost the last minute.

Wait ... if it was an old, uninhabited building, why was there a strange light coming from its yard? Uneasily, Satsuki stole up to a break in the wall around it, and peered in.

There, seated amid a wild garden of flowers, with a contemplative expression on her face as she looked up at the clock tower, was Aisaka Sayo. The light shining from her would have told Satsuki that this was Sayo herself, not her robot body, even if nothing else did.

"Hello, Satsuki-san," Sayo said calmly, without turning to look at her.

Satsuki blinked. How in the world had the ghost girl known she was here?

Sayo laughed gently, and now she did turn to look at her with a gentle smile. "You were talking to yourself, and I heard you."

Satsuki flushed. That was beginning to become a very bad habit for her. She started to apologize once again.

"No, no, the mistake was mine. And it was silly of me, anyway. I don't really need to eat, so why should I waste food just to have its taste? When I was a real girl ... I'd have been angry at a ghost who did things like this, when my sister and I went hungry a lot of the time."

Satsuki decided not to press the issue. At the moment, she was really more curious about the reasons that she, a completely normal girl, could see a ghost who was usually invisible.

"I don't know. But ... people can see me, when I'm here. It's just how it works. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that this is where it happened."

It? Oh. Satsuki realized just what it she was talking about, and felt ashamed for not guessing at once.

"It's all right, Satsuki-san, it was a long time ago. And ... I don't even really remember it. There's no pain. I cried a lot when I remembered about what had happened before, but ... well. It happened, and there's no getting away from it. So now I come here, when I need to be alone to think about things."

Satsuki wondered what had happened to her sister.

"She grew up, and got married, and had a son, who had a daughter, who had another daughter ... whose name was Asakura Kazumi. I guess that makes what we do incest, from a certain point of view."

Oh, now that was ridiculous, surely no one would consider ... wait, what they did?

Sayo giggled a bit at Satsuki's expression. "Love finds a way. And I do love her, and I think she loves me, too." Her smile turned a little sad. "I'm going to miss her when she leaves."

Wait, was Asakura leaving? Adjusting to the idea that Asakura did that ... well, actually, that wasn't hard at all, but Satsuki hadn't heard anything about her leaving.

"Of course she will. Everyone does, eventually. I've seen generations of girls come here, and eventually, all of them leave. Well, a few stay, or come back to work as faculty, but most just leave when they're done with their schooling. Asakura might stay until university, but sooner or later, she'll find a job somewhere else ... and that will be that." There was sorrow in her voice, but also acceptance.

Satsuki swallowed, and pointed out that Sayo could go with her, now.

Sayo shook her head. "The robot body won't last too long. Neither will the doll. Just like people leaving, sooner or later, everything breaks, too. Eventually, I'll have to stay here ... and I've decided that I don't want to do that."

What did she mean by that? That sounded very ominous.

"I suppose it is. You see, I've done a lot of thinking about this, recently. I've spent sixty years here, as a ghost, watching people come and go, watching things change ... and I was completely content. I was lonely, a little, when the people in class got to leave when I couldn't. But now I know that I was missing so much. I was just watching life, not being part of it, the way that I have this last year.

"So when Asakura leaves ... I'm going, too. I'm going wherever ghosts go when they stop being ghosts."

Where was that?

"Don't know. Maybe Misora's right, and I'll go to Heaven, or Hell, or Purgatory. Maybe Satomi's right, and there's nothing. All I know is ... when I say goodbye to her, I'll say goodbye to everything else, too. Because I was alone, and then I wasn't ... and I don't want to be alone again." She sighed, then blushed. "Sorry, that was pretty morbid, wasn't it? Don't look so sad, Satsuki, it won't happen for a while. It'll be okay. Really."

Satsuki had to go. The train ... she had to hurry if she was going to catch the last train. If she wanted to get home, she had to hurry.

"Well, good night, then. I'll see you tomorrow, maybe."

She walked away from the clock tower, head spinning. She'd known that Sayo had been around for a long time, but she'd never really considered what that meant before now. Nor just how much the last year might have changed things for her, to the point where she was willing to give up eternity rather than go back to the way things had been. And she had made that decision calmly. And the way that she'd spent her "life", just observing people rather than becoming involved with them ... and how long it had taken her to realize that wasn't enough.

She caught the train, and went home. But she didn't sleep very well. Her room, once shared with Chao before the Martian girl had gone away, had always been a place where she could rest and recuperate, but now it just seemed empty. The light reading she'd been planning on doing lay forgotten, and instead she decided to consult the encyclopedias that Chao had left behind. She wasn't sure what she was looking for, but she recognized it when she found it.

Of course, even having found it, she had no idea whether it would work. There was so much she didn't know or understand about the concepts involved. But at least she'd know that she'd done everything in her power to satisfy her customer. That thought finally let her sleep.

The next day went pretty much like every other day. She got up early and headed to the restaraunt to get started on the day's baking, served her morning customers alone, served the lunch crowd with the help of the waitresses and waiter. But towards the end of the afternoon, she explained to her staff first, and then the other customers, that Chao Bao Zi would be closing an hour early tonight to handle a private function. She had already posted a sign indicating this beside the stall's window. Some people seemeed a little unhappy about this, but nobody raised a fuss. Satsuki hoped that she'd have a chance to make it up to the unhappy ones later.

Eventually, the eating area was empty, and she sent her wait staff home early as well, explaining that she could handle the function herself. They seemed surprised at this, particularly the older one who claimed to be seventeen but probably wasn't, but Satsuki was fairly sure that the waiter and one of the waitresses, whom Satsuki suspected were trying to work up the nerve to ask each other on a date, were actually pleased to havve some time off.

She shuttered the stall's windows and sat down to wait, but her special customers didn't keep her waiting long. "Sure hope that the private function is us, or there's been a real miscommunication somewhere along the line," Asakura said with her usual lazy grin as she walked in through the stall's doors with Sayo, in her robot body, traling along behind. "How's it going, Sacchin?"

Satsuki frowned slightly. She didn't like being called that, and Asakura knew it. It made her nervous, as though things were about to go horribly wrong.

"Sorry, sorry," Asakura chuckled. "So what's the occasion?"

Regaining her usual good humor, Satsuki explained that she thought that she'd found a way to give Sayo the experience of eating that her robot body hadn't.

"Really?" Sayo gasped. "How will you do that?"

She elaborated on her research, how she'd discovered an old Chinese tradition of a ghost festival where the ancestor spirits of a family were invited to take a meal with them. A _shi_ , or personator, would be possessed by the ghost and eat. Her idea was for her to take the position of the _shi_ and let Sayo possess her while she ate a vegetarian meal that she'd cooked up for just this purpose.

"Possession?" Asakura asked, eyes widening as she looked at Sayo. "Can you do that? I mean, I know you can possess the doll, but a person?"

Sayo's hands were up over her mouth. "I don't know," she said. "I never have before this. Satsuki-san, are you sure about this? It sounds a little dangerous."

Satsuki nodded. She wasn't blind to the danger; that was why she'd wanted Asakura to be present, so that if anything went wrong there was someone who could call for help. She'd also undertaken what she could learn about the ritual preparations for a _shi_ before all of this, so as to minimize the risk. (Of course, her own skepticism, which suggested most _shi_ had just been people looking for a free meal, didn't help matters, but she didn't share that doubt with either of them.)

"Well ... if you're sure, Sach- Satsuki-san, and you really want to do this, Sayo ... I say go for it," Asakura said, pulling out her pactio card. "Anything happens, I'll call Negi immediately and bring him and the others here to help."

With that assurance, Satsuki turned to look at Sayo. She swallowed - the robot body was incredibly realistic - and then nodded, sitting on one of the countertop stools and leaning back. Her head sank forward as though she had fallen asleep. But the way that Asakura's eyes moved as though watching something that Satsuki couldn't see told the real story.

It was far too late for second thoughts, so Satsuki sat down in front of the bowl of soup and noodles, with a vegetable platter as a side dish, said a quiet ritual blessing, and indicated her readiness to proceed as she picked up the chopsticks. She wondered what it would be like; would the world just go black as Sayo slid into her body and took over her senses, or would it be as though frames had been cut out of a movie, or -

All at once, the scent of the soup seized hold of her attention completely. It was bizarre, really. She smelled soup every day, and while it was always a pleasant smell, this was like nothing she could even imagine, like she'd never even imagined the idea of soup. And her hand moved forward on its own to pick up some of the noodles with the chopsticks and bring them up to her mouth.

And if the scent had been like a glorious chorus of song, then the taste was that raised to an even higher power. Every single one of her taste buds was crying out in ecstasy at the blend of flavors that the soup and noodles represented. She stabbed out with the chopsticks to pick up a tomato slice and pop it in her mouth; more rapture.

More noodles, more vegetables, it was glorious -

"Hey. Hey! Slow down, Sayo!" Asakura said, grabbing her by the shoulder. "If you eat so fast, you'll make Satsuki-san sick when this is over."

Slowly, her head turned to look up at Asakura's worried face, for once not looking mischievous and tricksy, and looking past it to see the gentle, loving heart that she'd come to know so well these past months. "It's just so good, Asakura," she heard her voice say slowly, but to her ears it sounded nothing like her voice, just like recordings of it never did.

"I know, I know, but you have to be more moderate," Asakura was saying, but she barely heard her. She was distracted by the faint scent of the other girl's sweat. She knew that it ought to smell gross, but it was one of the sweetest scents she could imagine. And Asakura was leaning over so their faces were so close, making it easy for her to close the distance and kiss her.

Asakura jerked back. "Hey - hey, Sayo, I don't think you ought to -"

"Wouldn't it be nice, Asakura?" she heard herself ask, wistfully. "I know you like what we do together, but surely you'd like having a warm body beside yours."

"Well, uh, may-maybe, but I don't think Sacchin would like it much if we, if you, if she - oh boy."

Her head moved back and forth. "I don't think I can do anything she really doesn't want to do. If she were fighting me at all, I think she'd win, and I wouldn't be able to do anything ... so she doesn't mind," her voice explained. She slid off the stool and pushed herself up against Asakura, who was so much taller than she was.

"Well, that's, that's nice, Sayo, but ... I mean, it's Satsuki, you know? She's, she's just not my ..."

Her hand reached up and caressed the side of Asakura's face. "It's me inside, Asakura. Does it really matter what the outside looks like? Please?" She could feel tears running slowly down her cheeks. "No one has ever touched me, Asakura. Please? Can I please be selfish just this once?"

For a moment, Asakura was clearly wavering ... then she collapsed. "Oh, geez, I may hate myself in the morning," she muttered, then leaned down to return the kiss she'd been given.

Gently, she moved Satsuki's body back so that it rested against the counter top and bent over to start kissing her way down her throat. With the hand that wasn't cradling Satsuki's head, she started to open up the buttons of her chef's smock, exposing the blouse and skirt below it. Her fingers toyed mometarily with the blouse buttons, but then paused and went down to hike up the short skirt, revealing Satsuki's panties.

Oddly, Satsuki couldn't feel her cheeks growing red with embarrassment at all, even when Asakura slowly went down to those panties and pulled them down her hips. Her eyes closed, and her neck tilted back as she felt Asakura's breath down there.

A few moments later, one eye quirked open a bit. "Um, Asakura?" she heard her voice ask.

"Just ... give me a minute, okay?" Asakura said weakly. "I've never actually ... never done this with anyone, and ... I never expected ... ah, hell with it." She leaned forward and pressed her lips to Satsuki's other lips.

She cried out at once, and reached out to grab hold of Asakura's hair, holding onto it for dear life as unimaginable sensations ran up her spine and flooded her brain. And just when she thought it couldn't get any better, it did. And she screamed at the top of her lungs -

And then a few moments later, as she recollected herself, Satsuki realized that there was no longer any distance between herself and her actions. She tried to bring her rapid breathing back under control, and looked down at Asakura, who'd fallen back to land on her rear a few feet away. "Uh ... Sayo?" the other girl asked hesitantly.

Satsuki shook her head.

"Satsuki-san," Asakura said, weakly, then quickly turned away. "Um, you, you might want to ... um ..."

Privately, Satsuki thought it was bit late for modesty, but was nonetheless grateful for it as she quickly returned her clothes to a semblance of normality. Aloud, she wondered where Sayo had gone after ... well, after.

Asakura glanced over at the slumped form of the robot body. "I think she's gone dormant. Sometimes, when she goes through too much, she just collapses into the doll, and stays there for a while." Her tone grew wry. "Which means I'm going to have to carry her home. Man, what a slacker." She turned back to look at Satsuki, and her face became very apologetic. "Listen, I am really sorry about all of this, Satsuki-san. I didn't think things would turn out like this, and -"

Satsuki finished buttoning up her smock as she assured Asakura that it was quite all right. She was willing to do whatever she had to do in order to satisfy her customers.

Asakura stared at her. "Seriously?"

Seriously.

"Oh-kay then," Asakura said, shaking her head as she stood up and went over to pick up the robot in a fireman's carry, pulling its arms over her shoulders and its hips around her own.

Actually, Satsuki speculated, she wouldn't mind if they did that -

"Yeah, no," Asakura interrupted. "I'm, I'm sorry, Satsuki-san, but ... you're just not my type, you know? You're a sweet girl, and I'm sure that there's someone out there who'll love you like I love her. But ... no. This won't happen again."

... all right, then. She waved as Asakura as the girl carried the robot out the door and away from the converted cable-car. Then she turned to look at the remainder of the soup and vegetables that had been left when Sayo had become ... distracted.

Shame to waste them.

She sat down to finish the soup, and if it became a little more salty as she ate, she was too busy to notice.

 **Next:** Kaede.


	13. Konoka

Thump. Giggle. Thump thump thump.

Konoka opened a weary eye and looked up at the bunk above her own, which was quivering faintly as further movement atop it made it shift slightly. _They're at it again,_ she thought jealously. _Again._

It wasn't that she had any personal objection to Asuna and Negi knocking boots with startling frequency. In fact, it had been fun to watch their first, second and third times together. But she definitely disapproved of the incredibly selfish streak that this relationship upgrade had brought out in Asuna. After that second time, she and Yuna had cheerfully assumed that Asuna would have no problem if they took a turn with Negi, but when they so much as approached, Asuna had crouched over him, eyes narrowed and making hissing noises until they backed away.

Fortunately, Arika had been much more willing to enjoy the attentions of Yuna, Konoka and Setsuna - though Konoka had needed to sweet-talk her girlfriend into joining in - so the evening hadn't been a total loss. Particularly after their fathers had become arounsed once more. Daddy had claimed not to want to have sex with the wife of an old comrade, but Konoka's gently voiced threat to withhold her forgiveness had brought him around yet again. (She suspected that she was almost ready to forgive him. Almost.)

And then they'd fallen asleep, then woken up and gone out for breakfast together at the Chao Bao Zi. Everything had been fine, then. It had been afterwards that things had started to get bad. Konoka had been all for picking up where they'd left off the night before, but then Akashi-sensei-jiisan had realized that he'd completely forgotten about some plane that he had to catch to some conference, and dashed off with Yuna following along behind him. Then Daddy had begged off to go back to his hotel room - alone - to sleep - alone.

All of this would have been bad enough, but then Setsuna had hesitantly said that she had some things to do as well, things that she had to do, alone, without explaining them, and then dashed off. This had left her alone with Arika and the Asuna-Negi pairing that completely ignored Konoka in favor of frequent coupling. The fun of watching had started to fade, and Arika had politely but firmly declined Konoka's attentions. And so the day had passed slowly while she did her summer homework. Blaaah.

And now they were at it again, and she couldn't even go up and watch to see if they were doing something novel, because she was sleeping in the same bunk as Arika, who'd thrown a very firm arm over her that kept her from getting up. It was remarkable how strong the older woman was, to hold her down even though she was clearly fast asleep. Konoka hoped for both their sakes that she didn't have to go to the bathroom any time tonight, or there was going to be trouble.

"... you're insatiable, Asuna ..." she heard Negi murmuring above.

"... love what you do to me ..." came Asuna's answering murmur.

The sweet nothings would ordinarily have made Konoka gleeful, even coming as they did between incestuous siblings who were related in a way that even she found disturbing. Right now, they only annoyed and frustrated her. As did the fact that Asuna had apparently not had an orgasm from anything that they did together, a couple of years ago. That really made her mad! She should have said so!

Eventually, the noises stopped, and so did the movements. After a while, the faint sounds of two people breathing in harmony could be heard.

"We need to have a little chat," said Arika softly.

Konoka gasped, turning over to look at Negi's mother where she lay beside her. "How long have you been awake?" she asked, in the same quiet manner.

"I was never asleep. I don't sleep, I wait." As Konoka's eyes bugged out, considering this, Arika continued. "I am not going to let you get involved with them just yet."

"Why not?" Konoka asked, offended. "What's wrong with me?"

"Indeed, that is the question," Arika agreed. "Konoka-chan, people who have sex with their relatives are fundamentally damaged people. I am, my children are, Yuna is, her father and your father are. But by all accounts, you are a happy, well-adjusted young woman. So why are you doing this?"

Konoka frowned. "I have a little more depth than -"

"Do not mistake damage for depth," she interrupted. "You have made frequent reference to forgiving your father for not telling you that Setsuna-chan and yourself were sisters if he performs for you. I suppose that one could understand being upset about that, but you are taking it much, much further than most people would. Until I understand why, I won't allow you to be involved with them."

Konoka turned away. "I'm just mad. That's all," she said shortly, since she was mad at Arika now as well. "And regardless of what you think, Asuna's being selfish and won't let me ..." She trailed off.

"You're misreading the situation," Arika said after a moment. "I'm fairly sure that she is almost at a point where she would be willing to share Negi's attentions with someone she cared about. But that's neither here nor there. You need to understand your own motives before that can happen. I might suggest that you and Setsuna-chan need to work things out, first."

"What do you mean?" Konoka asked, startled.

"Have you really not noticed the hurt looks she's been giving you? That's odd, considering that she's someone you claim to love." Before Konoka could answer that, Arika continued. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to wait a little more." Her eyes closed, and a few minutes later, faint snoring sounds came from her nose.

Konoka noticed that the arm across her chest had become a lot more limp, and considered getting up. She decided not to chance it, however. Not unless she had to.

When morning eventually came, she awoke before any of the others. (She suspected that Negi and Asuna had probably had another episode of carnality - if not a few of them - that she'd slept through, given how soundly they were sleeping.) She got out of bed and pulled on some clothes, then headed out into the dormitory hall.

Arika was wrong about many things. Many, many things. But she was not wrong to claim that Konoka had been overlooking Secchan's feelings about all of this. It was obvious, in retrospect, that Secchan was just a little bit uncomfortable with all of the things they'd gotten up to in the past few days, and so Konoka needed to take some time to reassure her that she came first in her heart. And doing so would be fun, too!

She quickly made her way to the room that Secchan shared with Mana, and knocked on the door. "Secchan?" she said, raising her voice just a little. "It's me. I really need to talk to you." When there was no response, she knocked again. "Sec-"

The door flung open and there was abruptly a pistol with the muzzle planted squarely between Konoka's eyebrows. "You have five seconds to explain why I'm not going to pull the trigger. Five," said Mana conversationally. She didn't look as though she'd slept well, and smelled like a distillery. "Four," she added.

"Because it would make Secchan and Negi-kun both really very cross, and reduce your chances of employment in the Kyoto region to practically zero," Konoka explained quickly.

Mana appeared to give the matter some thought. "Yes, those are good reasons," she agreed, pulling back the pistol and clicking on its safety. "Another good one would have been, it's unloaded. But in any event, Setsuna's not here. She wasn't here when I came back last night, and she has not arrived in the interval since. She's not here. I am sleeping off the hangover from a twenty-four hour bender. Go away, Konoe."

"What happened to your clothes?" Konoka asked. It seemed a pertinent question to ask when confronted by a naked woman with a pistol.

"I took them off. Go away, Konoe. You have a Pactio with Setsuna, right? Use the damn card to call her if you need to talk to her." Mana closed the door firmly in Konoka's face, then turned around and marched back into her room, spared a moment to glare at the soused living legend sleeping noisily in the bottom bunk, then climbed up into the top one where she'd slept the previous night.

Outside, Konoka stood for a moment, feeling very foolish. She did in fact have a Pactio with Setsuna, and she had the card with her. Raising it to her head, she closed her eyes and attempted to bring herself into mental contact with her girlfriend.

No response.

Konoka's eyes snapped open. What had happened? Had Setsuna taken wing and flown outside the card's communication range? Had someone somehow managed to capture her and separate her from her card? Was she just not answering, and if so, why? Had Konoka really hurt her that badly?

She put the card away, turned and started running. She didn't know where she was running, but she wanted to get there in a hurry. On an impulse, she checked in the huge baths, but no one was using them at the moment; certainly not Secchan. Turning, she headed out and down the stairs to the ground floor.

_Secchan, why are you so hurt? Don't you understand? Don't you feel betrayed? I trusted Daddy, and he was keeping a big secret from me. From both of us. I trusted Daddy. I don't trust easily, Secchan. Not since ..._

_No._

She skidded to a halt as she reached the entrance to the dormitory building, just as three others were heading out. Kaede turned to look at her with surprise. "Konoka-dono?" she asked in her typically archaic manner. "Does some grim situation obtain?"

"You look really upset!" Fuuka agreed. "Can we help?"

"If we can help, please tell us," agreed Fumika with a nod.

"It's ... I'm having trouble finding Secchan. Have any of you seen her anywhere this morning?" she asked.

As one, the three of them shook their heads. "Have you tried the -" Fuuka broke off and made vague finger waving gestures.

Against her will, Konoka let out a little laugh. "Yes, I tried that first."

Fuuka and Fumika gave the appearance of giving the problem a great deal of thought. With a sudden vigorous nod, Fuuka looked up again. "Konoka-neechan, we're going on an official Strolling Club promenade. Would you like to come with us? We might see Setsuna-neechan along the way, by chance."

"Um ... Fuuka-neechan, is this really a good idea?" Fumika murmured quietly. "The promenade can be hard on novice strollers."

"Thank you, Fuuka-chan," Konoka said gratefully. "At this point, I'll try anything. I'm in your care, but please don't worry too much about me. When we went to the Magical World, I spent a lot of time walking around the countryside with Kaede-han, didn't I?"

Kaede nodded soberly. "That is indeed so. Well, then, let us be off."

* * *

"This is not quite what I had in mind," Konoka said as she watched the Narutakis disappear behind yet another set of bushes, followed by the sound of giggling and soft moans. They'd claimed to have seen a clue to Setsuna's whereabouts there, just as they had seen things behind various other pieces of concealment, but by now Konoka was on to them.

"This one would have warned you, had you but asked. Among those who know, it is well known that the strolling club is in fact what the vulgar might call a sex club, where the members attempt to find places where one might enjoy another's company with none other the wiser. And then enjoy such covert pleasures, betimes with another member standing lookout. As one does," Kaede added as she sat down on the park bench near the bushes. She patted an empty space beside herself.

Konoka sat down. She felt like she'd wandered over half the campus already, even though she knew it was nowhere near as much as that. She looked over at the quivering bushes, which managed to hide what was going on behind them quite well, and asked, "So then ... did you, well, seduce them, or -"

"In fact, this one was the seduced party," Kaede admitted with a mild blush. "They were ... quite eager, when first we met. But still, they had cause ... but that is a story for another day, perhaps. Let us speak frankly with one another, Konoka-dono. We are comrades, are we not? Why think you that Setsuna-dono is shunning your company this day?"

Konoka yearned to unburden herself, but hesitated nonetheless. "It's kind of a twisted story, Kaede-han. You might not like knowing."

"Many things are already known to this one, that one would not care to know. What are a few more? We are comrades." She gave the word such meaning.

Konoka told her everything, starting from the day before yesterday, when she and Secchan had gone to visit with her father and learned the truth about each other, all the way through to what had happened this morning, leaving nothing out. Kaede's expression was unchanging through all of it, even as Konoka herself blushed while talking about watching Negi making love to Asuna and to his own mother. But then she'd just confessed to being the lover of a pair of twin sisters who took pleasure in each other's company, hadn't she? She couldn't judge -

"A question, if this one might interject," Kaede said abruptly. "It is somewhat awkward to inquire, but ... has Konoka-dono told Setsuna-dono of the intimacies she enjoyed whilst separated from her protector, in the wilds of the Magical World?"

"You mean, about us," Konoka translated, blushing again. "Well, no. It, well, it's never come up. I mean ..." She trailed off, not wanting to say the true but hurtful phrase, 'It didn't mean anything.' For all she knew, it had meant something to Kaede.

Kaede sighed, and her usually lowered eyelids lifted just a bit. "Might this one speak plainly?"

"Go ahead."

"You are upset at your father for deceiving you, yet you deceive Setsuna-dono in much the same way. You have enjoyed the company of others before her face; why do you not reveal to her those encounters which took place behind her back?"

Konoka jerked back like she'd been slapped. "I ... wait, that's not ... I ... that's not fair."

Kaede shrugged. "Fair has little enough to do with anything involving the heart. You trust her with your life, and yet I think you are reluctant to fully entrust her with your happiness. You find it hard to trust, I think."

Konoka bit her lip. "Now you're talking like Arika, acting like there's something wrong with me. Like I'm damaged."

"Are you not? For my part, Arika-dono's words in this matter have the ring of truth. To lie with one's kin is not the act of a healthy person, Konoka-dono."

"Oh really. So Fuuka and Fumika are damaged?" Konoka snapped. This wasn't going the way that she wanted it to.

"Oh yes," Kaede agreed levelly, then lifted her voice. "Fuuka-chan, might this one have your permission to relate your story to Konoka-dono?"

"Yes yes yes!" came from the bushes.

"Thank you," Kaede said, never taking her lidded gaze off of Konoka's face. "Do you imagine that they have always been so close? In fact, not so. For the first four years of their life, indeed so, but then did their parents end their union in painful divorce, each taking one of their twins as their only child, permitting no contact between them. Each child came to believe that their twin was imaginary, until at last they chanced to meet, some six years later, at the festival of the school to which they had both been sent.

"Even then, they might not have recognized each other, had one of them not used a bit of the private language they had both had in their childhood, and the other recognized it and used it to reply. And they knew each other, and realized the deception that had been practiced upon them. And so ... and so they turned to a friend of theirs, who, employing certain skills obtained through methods of no interest to anyone else, stole unto the administration office and changed their records so that the school believes that they are and have always both borne the family name Narutaki, when in truth they have two different names when they are at home.

"And so, damaged? Yes, one must admit it. Broken from an early intimacy and taught lies, then learning the truth in such a way, would damage anyone. Small wonder that they seek still greater intimacy, despite condemnation. Perhaps this one, too, is damaged, though that tale is mine to tell or not tell ... and today, it shall not be told." Kaede paused, letting her voice rest from her oration, then asked, quietly, "Can you truly say you are not damaged, Konoka-dono? If not, then why do you find it so hard to trust?"

_"I don't wanna go to an omiai."_

_"Well, too bad, your grand-dad's paying me to take you there. Unless you can beat his price, you're going."_

_"Not fair. I don't have any money."_

_"... but you know, there are other ways to pay ..."_

Konoka swallowed, and fought back tears. "I just ... I don't want ... but ..."

"Konoka," interjected Kaede, for once dropping the archaic honorific. "Most of us are damaged, in one way or another. It is normal to hurt others if you have been hurt. But it is better to be kinder."

Mastering the pain, a skill she'd learned a long time ago, Konoka blinked the tears away, and took a shuddering breath. "That's not easy," she murmured.

"No it's not," Kaede agreed.

"This ... isn't helping me find her, is it?" Konoka asked. Slowly, she got to her feet. "I'd say thank you, Kaede-han, but ..." She shook her head, sadly.

"This one does not look for thanks, Konoka-dono. Fulfilling one's obligations is enough."

Then the Narutakis burst from the bushes, admitting that they had been mistaken about Setsuna hiding there, and Konoka laughed a little - another skill she'd learned early on - and said that they were right before, she wasn't cut out for a promenade like this. Despite their pleas, it was time for her to be heading back to the dorm, and so they parted company.

Eventually, she arrived and went up the stairs, then opened the door to the room with a sigh. "Tad-" And the word died in her throat as she saw what was going on within.

Secchan was staring back at her from where she was firmly mounted above Negi's up-thrusting hips, while his head was under Asuna's hips, spread across his face with her back to Konoka. And as she watched, Asuna was leaning forward to lick at one of Secchan's firm little nipples. "O-o-o-ojousama," Secchan stammered, looking utterly mortified. "I, this is ..."

"Ah, you're back," said Arika, who was watching the activities from a chair nearby. She stood up and walked over to Konoka, gently pushing her out through the door to the hallway. "Keep going, I need to have a little chat with Konoka-chan. In private." She stepped out into the hall and shut the door behind them.

"You failed the test," she said to the shocked teenager after a moment.

"Test?" Konoka asked hoarsely.

"I told you, didn't I, that Asuna was about ready to share. Setsuna-chan received your attempt to communicate with the pactio, but felt that what she had to say was too important to say like that. She wanted to talk to you directly, and so quickly came back here to where she thought you'd be. She arrived right after you left with Kaede-chan and those two little girls - did you have fun with them, incidentally? - and was upset that you weren't here. So Negi and Asuna ... consoled her."

"But, but - how was I supposed to know -"

"If you'd trusted her to come to you, rather than thinking she was someone you had to find and manipulate, you'd have waited for her." Arika fell silent, considering Konoka. "Are you ready to admit that you have a problem, now?"

 _"That was good, ojouchan. Real good. This'll be our little secret, right?"_ /p>

"No," Konoka answered quietly, sudden fury rising up from within her. "There's nothing wrong with me." She whirled and stormed away.

"Ah well. It's probably for the best," Arika murmured, watching her go. "Only one queen in a hive, after all." And then she went back into the dorm room.

Konoka made it all the way to the stairs before she started crying.

 **Next:** Fuuka and Fumika


	14. Side-Story -- Haruna Redux

So she'd found Konoka sitting on the stairs, crying her eyes out, and being both a good person and insatiably curious, she'd brought her back to her room and gotten the story out of her. Said story made the story she'd gotten out of Asuna earlier look tame. Bluntly, what her friend was getting up to turned her stomach. But she forced herself to keep in mind that Konoka was, despite everything, a victim in all of this.

That evening, she got her friend settled in to one of the spare rooms, and hit the hay herself. Her dreams were always vivid, and usually involved sex, since she didn't have nearly as much of it as she wanted or people thought she did. And considering everything else, it wasn't all that surprising that the dream found her making love to her older brother.

It didn't bother her, since it was just a dream, just a manifestation of her wish that she could be closer with the cool sibling who'd never had much time for her. He'd been almost eighteen when she was born, late in life, to their parents, after all. The fact that he had a wife, girlfriend, mistress and concubine was pretty impressive, especially when added to her suspicion that he also had something going on with his two sisters-in-law.

And then, in the dream, the door to the room where she lay beneath him slid open and their mother walked in. "Ah, I thought this would happen eventually, " she said sagely. "I could not resist him either, after all. Oh, come now, Haruna-chan, surely you didn't really think that my worthless husband was your father? Why would I take him back to my bed? When my son is so manly ..."

She was pulling off her kimono to join the two of them when Haruna finally woke up, breathing heavily, quite disturbed, and aware of wetness between her legs. Fortunately, her hands were nowhere near there, so she could take comfort in the fact that it was purely physiological, rather than anything ...

Haruna frowned and lifted up the covers. "Konoka, get out of my bed."

"I'm lonely, " Konoka replied, looking up at her piteously.

_She's a victim. She's a victim. She's a victim._


	15. Fuuka and Fumika

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is primarily the work of Shadow_Crystal_Mage.

Narutaki Fumika woke up to find herself naked, sticky, and lying in a confused tangle of blankets and her sister's limbs. She groaned to herself. They'd fallen asleep playing naked Twister again, and spilled the pitcher of iced tea on themselves in their sleep. She had no idea how the blanket had gotten there.

Blearily, she raised her head, looking around. Oh, the window was open, the braided tassel hanging from the lock twisted in a distinctive pattern. Kaede-neechan had been in, then. She winced, imagining the elder ninja's smiling displeasure at their being too dead to the world to notice her entry into their dorm. Ooh, they were going to pay for that one

A quick mental recall, and she lay back as she remembered that it was the weekend. No need to rush, then. True, they had homework, but meh. They could always do it later. And training wasn't until tomorrow, anyway, so no need to fear from that quarter, either. She settled back to go to sleep and maybe wake up at noon. It wouldn't be the first time she'd gone to sleep sticky. Technically she'd been doing it all night.

She yelped as a tongue was stuck into her ear.

"Morning!" Fuuka chirped happily, making Fumika cringe at the sudden sound right at her ear. Her sister squeezed her briefly, arms pulling tight, legs wrapping like an enthusiastic octopus, nuzzling her cheek against the side of Fumika's neck. Then she released her, pulling back and untangling herself hastily from the blanket. Fumika yelped, then winced as she slipped and fell when her hand slid on a still-wet puddle of iced tea and went out from under her.

"Owie " she moaned as Fuuka, naked as she'd been last night, threw back the curtains, giving some startled pigeons a very fun morning show.

"Fumika!" her sister cried. "I know what we're going to do today!"

"Stay in bed and nap?" Fumika said, wincing as she rubbed her elbow.

"We," Fuuka continued as though she hadn't heard, "are going to take a walk!"

"That's what we do every day," Fumika whined, pouting. "Can't we take a nap just this once?"

"Fuu-mii-kaa! You're ruining our image!"

"There's no one around to ruin our image for," she grumbled, reluctantly sitting up and now wincing at the stickiness. "I'm not moving. I wanna nap, darn it! Is it too much to ask to nap until noon?"

Suddenly a slim, sticky body was pressed behind her, and someone was rubbing their cheek against the back of her neck. "Come on, Fumika-chan! Please? Pleasey-pleasey-pleasey-pleasey ..."

Fumika hmphed, though her skin tingled at the contact, getting goosebumpy. "Well," she dangled. It was uncommon for her to be able to get at her sister like this. She usually led with the force of her personality. "All right, but under one condition!"

Fuuka hugged her tighter, her head coming around Fumika's shoulders so they could look at each other. "What?"

Fumika smiled. "I feel like being pampered. Give me a bath. A nice ... long ... soapy ... _bath._ "

A slow smile came over the more rambunctious twin's face. "Well " she purred. "If you insist "

* * *

After scrubbing, de-sticky-fying, and indulging in a little decadence (something they did with habitual regularity) in the shower ... and on the loo ... and the sink ... and with the towel ... and against the door on their way out ... the twins, dressed in matching shorts and shirts, walked along one of the many paths through Mahora campus, energetically swinging their arms, a skip in their step.

"Strolling, strolling, strolling!" they sang. "Strolling, strolling, strolling!" (It sounds much better in Twin. You'll just have to believe that, because Twin can't be transliterated into this alphabet.)

They passed the duck pond, leaving the area followed by a line of several ducklings honking along to the song.

"Strolling, strolling, strolling!" they sang. "Strolling, strolling, strolling!"

They reached a small, secluded nook hidden from the pond and main path by a twist in the path, a fallen tree, and a concealing screen of bush. The bush moved slightly. The ducklings scattered.

"Darn!" Fuuka said. "Occupied!"

Her sister gave her a sideways look. "You don't want to join in? It looks like Rin-chan and Sakura-chan ..."

Fuuka pouted. "I'm not in the mood for tall right now. Onward!"

Her sister rolled her eyes, but dutifully followed as they left the rustling bush behind.

"Strolling, strolling, strolling!" they sang. "Strolling, strolling, strolling!"

They stepped out of the wooded area, coming along a path that bordered the lake. A steady, clear wind blew, flapping at their loose shirts as they strolled along. In the water, they could see Chachamaru motoring along to retrieve yet another box with a kitten in it. Kittens set adrift in boxes was turning into a bit of a problem in Mahora. Neither twin wanted to be in the shoes of whatever idiot had conceived the idea when Chachamaru finally got her hands on them.

In one of the gravel-covered banks, lying on mattress roll and a blanket, Evangeline lay face down, head turned to one side as the wind caught her hair and sent it flapping wildly, her head bopping along to the beat of whatever she was listening to on her ipod. She was naked, her clothes discarded off to one side, weighed down by a rock. Dressed in a fetching black bikini, Chisame knelt next to her, a sullen expression on her face as she massaged Evangeline's back. She gave the two an embarrassed, suffering look, but didn't stop what she was doing. The twins slowed, appreciating the sight.

Eva didn't even look up. "Keep looking, and I'll charge you two a fee. What do you want? I'm trying to relax here."

Chachamaru waded ashore, carrying the box with the kitten in it, and placed it next to a pile of other boxes, each also carrying a kitten. Bowing a greeting to the twins, she turned and walked back into the water, where more boxes floated. Oh, yes, whoever was having kittens set sail was going to be in for a world of hurt if Chachamaru ever caught them.

"Just looking, Eva-sama," Fuuka said, gazing admiring at the beautifully beguiling baking ... backdrop before them. "You have a very nice ... backdrop. You want it massaged?"

"Obviously, someone is already doing that," Evangeline snapped at the twins, though not unkindly. "Shoo, I'm baking."

The twins looked at each other and shrugged, climbing back up to the path as Chachamaru returned with another box. "Strolling, strolling, strolling ..."

"Damn, I hate that creepy song," Chisame muttered.

"If you're going to flap your mouth, do it on something productive," Evangeline said, not looking up.

With a forceful sigh, Chisame bent over to comply.

* * *

"Jackpot," Fuuka declared as they neared the athletic fields outside the grade school area, not to be confused with the athletic fields of the gym complex proper. They watched as another headpiece of a nun habit was thrown up into the air from behind a long raised mound of earth, and fell not far from the first one they'd seen.

"Ooh, naughty nuns!" Fumika said, perking up. "Who could it be, you think? Azamaria-chan and Rosette-chan?"

"Only one way to find out!" her sibling declared, bounding energetically up the steep mound. Its steep incline would normally have deterred people from doing this, but the twins were ninja in training after all. "Misora-chan! Cocone-chan! We meet again!"

There was a sudden and loud freaked-out-as-hell-mortified-and-embarrassed yelp from below as Fumika scrambled up, looking down at the two 'nuns' - HAH! They weren't even Catholic, never mind old enough to apply! - on the ground below, still mostly clothed in their mini-skirted so-called habits - HAH! Such decadently revealing things! - though Misora's stockings and garter belt had been pulled down to her ankles, and Cocone was barefoot. Always with the being barefoot, that girl. She was straddling Misora, one hand still under Misora's skirt, although the abrupt way she'd jerked back had flipped the skirt up slightly, revealing exactly where the hand was and what it had been doing. The other was unsubtly groping one of Misora's breasts.

Fumika smiled widely, waving the arm she was holding the headpieces she'd picked up enthusiastically. "Hey, you two! Want some company?"

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Misora swore, pushing down her skirt with the expression of one very unamused by the interruption. The normally merry prankster looked quite uncharacteristically pissed off. "Look, we don't walk in on you two when you're messing around!"

"Why don't you?" Fuuka chirped, grinning. "We're friends, aren't we? Feel free!"

Cocone narrowed her eyes. Abruptly, she latched on to Misora like a jealous python. Fumika nearly expected her eyes to glow demonic orange as the small, dark-skinned girl practically growled an animalistic, "Mine!"

Misora also wrapped possessive hands around Cocone, squeezing her shoulder and stroking her hair as she whispered soothingly to the Hellas native. "You know, I don't think you two really get what people mean by a monogamous relationship. Mono, as in 'one', as in 'only', no sharing, trading or switching. You two probably wouldn't like it if some boy you were dating thought you were interchangeable!"

Fuuka opened her mouth -

"Negi-kun doesn't count!" Misora corrected.

As usual, there was a brief moment of contemplation from all present, and a sigh that, had this been a manga, would have the words "Negi-kun", complete with trailing ellipses, drawn across the page. (Or screen, for the bad people who read most of their manga on-line. Bad, bad people.)

"You know, for a lolicon, you can be such a prude, Misora-chan," Fuuka huffed. "Besides, we wouldn't date a boy unless it was Negi-kun anyway!"

"Hey!" Misora protested. "I'm not a prude! I just think certain boundaries should be respected to keep a relationship special, that's all."

"And legal age of consent isn't one of them?" Fumika commented.

"I'm impatient," Cocone said quietly, a quite clear "keep me from nookie and I will hurt you" look in her eyes. "It is not easy to get Misora to agree to this."

The twins gave the tallest girl present a dubious look. "... sorry, I'm not buying it," Fuuka said.

Misora sighed, gently plucking Cocone off her lap as she stood up and reached for the underwear crumpled around her legs. "That's it, mood's dead. Sorry, Cocone-chan."

The glare the loli directed at the twins should have flash-fried them. Her hand went into her pocket, pulling out a small, collapsible wand. The twins yelped, turning and running away.

Misora sat back down again, pushing the fripperies back around her ankles. "Now," she said as she leaned in to kiss Cocone on the cheek. "Where were we?"

The loli smiled and reached back under Misora's skirt.

* * *

The twins panted as they stopped near Sakura Lane.

"Wow," Fuuka said. "Cocone-chan's 'no nookie' face is scary."

"I saw my life flash before my eyes " Fumika moaned. She blinked. "Hey, it was you who broke my Malibu Barbie's arm!"

"Eh, all in the past, sis!" Fuuka said, chuckling nervously as Fumika glared at her. She pointed dramatically. "Onward!"

"No."

Fuuka had already taken three steps before the response registered, freezing with one foot raised to step. She hopped around on one foot, pose not changing, to stare at her sister. "Huh?"

Fumika crossed her arms in a huff, tapping her foot. She was glaring at her sister, her lips pouting cutely. " _No!_ I'm tired of walking! I wanna do something I want to do!"

"But you like walking!" Fuuka said. After a moment, she remembered to put her foot down.

"Only sometimes!" Fumika said. "I wanted to take a nap, remember? Do you even remember how late we were up playing naked Twister? Which was _also_ your idea, by the way."

Fuuka scratched her head. "Um, it wasn't that late, was it?"

"We were up until at least 2:30," Fumika said. "I remember because the TV was on, and they announced they were shutting down for the night. Now I've been walking all day, and I haven't had breakfast and I'm tired of walking, darn it!"

Fuuka opened her mouth.

Fuuka closed her mouth.

Fuuka opened her mouth again, raising a finger, and paused, closing her mouth to tap her cheek thoughtfully.

Finally, she said, "I'll buy you a new Malibu Barbie?"

If anything, Fumika's eyes narrowed, and her hands went from being crossed over her nearly-nonexistent chest to resting on her hips. Fuuka was surprised to realize her sister's foot was still tapping, or rather hadn't stopped tapping.

Fuuka opened her mouth.

Fuuka closed her mouth.

Fuuka opened her mouth again, raising a finger, and paused -

"Oh, just say something!" Fumika said, exasperated.

Fuuka licked her lips. "Um, this isn't going to be one of those angsty, crappy romance novel talks about how this isn't going to work out and where is our relationship going, where one of us gets all weepy and stomps off while the other just stands there and the reader is thinking 'what a damned idiot, she could have _easily_ dealt with that if she'd held her temper and not flown off the handle like a one-dimensional stupid person' and we go through an extended phase of avoiding each other for several chapters is it?"

Fumika stared at her. "Why in Akamatsu's holy name would you think that?"

"Well, given the tone of the rest of this series, it's kinda one of the cliches we might have to follow, the other being badly-written, brainlessly vigorous sex on the spot, with me letting you treat me as your slave in order to get you to 'forgive' me," Fuuka said, completely breaking the fourth wall.

They waited patiently as the wall was fixed, resuming the tone of the conversation where they'd left off, though with the previous three paragraphs exiled from continuity and replaced with something else that fit the situation.

Fumika stared at her sister, and slumped, head bowed. "You're hopeless," she bemoaned, turning away to trudge off.

"Hey!" Fuuka asked. "Where are you going?"

"To take a nap!" was the snapped reply.

Fuuka just stood there, one hand partially upraised as if to call her sister back, watching as she disappeared back the way they'd came.

_What a damned idiot. She could_ easily _have dealt with that ..._

Fuuka twitched. "Oh, no," she said. "No way in hell am I acting like some idiot character from a crappy romance novel!"

She looked around, but couldn't see what she wanted. It was unlikely she would. The season was wrong. She reached into her back pocket, pulling out her surprisingly bland and sensible wallet. She opened it, taking a quick count and nodding to herself. Then she turned and quickly began power walking.

There was a reason why Fuuka always led on the sisters' walking tours. Fumika, in a good mood, was a good walker ... but Fuuka was the one who had a sense of direction.

* * *

Fumika didn't get lost. She knew exactly where she was and where she was going. She just didn't know the shortest path between those two points. As a member of the walking club, she'd been over every square inch of the walkable surface area of the academy, and some of the non-walkable areas as well. (Ninja in training, after all.) It's just that ... well ... while she'd never had a problem finding her way around, and finding her way back the way she'd come, combining the two abilities was a teensy bit difficult for her. Hence why she was retracing their steps, trying to get back to their room.

She really should have remembered that Sakura Lane led to the dorms ...

Fumika blinked as she heard violin music playing. As she walked, the music got louder. "What the ... ?" she said as she turned a twist in the path she was following. She stopped dead, staring.

At a small clearing to one side of the path, a strange scene met her eyes. A stool and TV tray had been set up, the tray covered with a cloth that on close inspection turned out to be a ragged, if clean, towel. A takeout bag rested on top of the tray. An ipod and speakers stood to one side, playing the music, next to a foldout cot, it's surface covered with a few flower petals. Her pillow and Ultraman plushy stood at the head.

Fuuka was in the midst of setting up a big beach umbrella to a stand next to the cot, locking the big shaft in place and popping it open. She nodded in satisfaction, then turned to look at Fumika. She spread out her hands. "Ta dah!"

Fumika stared, blinking and wondering what the heck was going on. "What the heck is going on?" she redundantly repeated her expressed thoughts.

"Breakfast!" Fuuka said, striding over and making to grab Fumika's hand only to pause, and then bent her arm, pointing her elbow at her sister. It took Fumika a moment to realize Fuuka was offering her arm to her sister.

Confused as heck, Fumika placed a hand on the proffered arm, and Fuuka slowly (for her) led to the takeout bag. She made a show of dusting off the stool and pulling it back for Fumika to sit on. Bemused, Fumika sat, and Fuuka began unwrapping the takeout bag.

"Breakfast is served!" she declared.

Fumika stared at the covered food, her body poking at her to indulge in a different sort of carnality

Indulgence commenced.

Fumika sighed happily as she patted her satisfied belly. She looked at her sister with half-lidded eyes as Fuuka cleared off the remains of the meal. "All right," she said. "What's this about?"

Fuuka hesitated, arousing Fumika's suspicions. Any minute now, she was going to -

"I've been selfish," Fuuka said.

\- say something completely out of the blue and really throw Fumika off. "Huh?"

There was a familiar mischievous twinkle in her sister's eye. She gestured towards the cot in an overdone way that was probably meant to be gallant. "You said something about a nap?"

Fumika turned to stare at the cot. It was shaded by the big umbrella, and looked nice and cool and comfy. Her eyes started to droop just looking at it.

She was vaguely aware of Fuuka picking her up and laying on the cool, shadowed sheets, crushing flower petals beneath her. The shade of the umbrella was like a pleasant weight on her eyes, and she closed them momentarily. Distantly, she felt a pillow placed under her head, and something soft and fluffy in her arms. She hugged it instinctively, smelling familiar poly-cotton. Someone was humming nearby, a soft, mellow lullaby, and she felt so tired ...

Blackness.

Fuuka smiled down at her sister, who lay curled up, smiling slightly herself. Then the conscious of the two sighed and looked around. "Okay now what do I do for the next three hours?"

* * *

The chilly late-afternoon wind woke Fumika, her hand grasping for a blanket that wasn't there. Her hand went over the side of the cot and was patting at earth and grass before she finally opened her eyes, gazing blearily down at the unexpected surface. She looked up as a deeper darkness obscured the light above, and she turned and blinked to find her sister's smiling face leaning over her. "Hey, sleepy head," Fuuka said quietly, stroking Fumika s hair. "How'd you sleep?"

Fumika blinked at her, still not completely together. "Did Kaede-neechan kidnap us and take us to the mountains again?"

"No, although she did come by to evilly extort money from me to take the stool and TV tray back to the dorm," Fuuka said.

Fumika blinked herself awake, realizing she was lying on a narrow, if comfortable, cot. For some reason, there was a flower petal stuck to her cheek. She peeled it off. Then, she frowned. Something felt off. Her eyes widened in realization, and she stuck her hand down the front of her pants, feeling around in front. "Hey I'm dry!" she said in amazement, then felt around her back just in case. Dry too. She eyed her sister suspiciously. Fuuka gave a mild yelp as her own pants-space was invaded, a hand not-unpleasantly rooting around in front. "You're dry too!"

"Yeah?" Fuuka said, looking amused as Fumika drew back her hand.

"Didn't you molest me or hump me in my sleep or something?"

Fuuka raised an eyebrow. "Well, I wanted to ..." she said. "I mean, you look really cute and vulnerable and rapeable when you're asleep. But you looked like you were enjoying yourself."

Fumika blinked at her.

Fuuka laughed and kissed her lightly on the forehead, ruffling her hair. "The way I figure it," she said softly, lovingly, "as your big sister and your boyfriend, I have certain responsibilities. Pampering you is one of them."

"Five minutes. You're not that big a sister," Fumika said by rote. The other shoe dropped and she raised an eyebrow. "Boyfriend?"

"You make me feel guilty as hell, I'm the one who doesn't need to ask for directions, I pay for most things, and I'm usually the one on the thrusting end of the dildo rather than the receiving end," Fuuka listed. "I think I qualify."

"Oh, so I'm supposed to be the uke?" Fumika huffed.

Fuuka raised an eyebrow. "Who says that?" she said. "I don't think it's that simple, even with normal, straight people. That's probably all a stereotype perpetrated by doujin artists and lemon writers who can't give a damn about characterization and development."

Somewhere, Haruna sneezed as she pondered how she'd become the only sane person in this fic.

Fumika still eyed her suspiciously. With a sigh, Fuuka reached behind her and drew out a box containing a brand new Barbie doll.

Fumika squealed and hugged her tight, shaking her from side to side. "I love you! You're the bestest boyfriend ever!"

"Just don t expect anything too big for your birthday," Fuuka said, before they both yelped and fell off the cot.

"Owie," they chorused.

Fumika scrabbled off her sister as the other pushed herself up, rubbing the back of her head. She began running her hands over Fuuka's scalp, checking for injuries as Kaede had taught them. "No breaks," she said. "You're not bleeding. There's going to be a bump though. You poor baby."

"Kiss it to make it better?" Fuuka wheedled.

Fumika rolled her eyes, but leaned over and did so. Her breath was warm on Fuuka's scalp, the touch soft and light. The elder twin sighed in contentment, leaning back against her sister, who obligingly caught her, arms wrapping around her shoulders. "Have I told you I love you today?" Fuuka said, almost a murmur.

"No," Fumika murmured right back, trailing her fingers lightly up and down her sister's arm. "You've been neglecting that responsibility, onee-chan."

"Hmm ..." Fuuka responded. She turned and kissed Fumika's lips lightly, gently. "I love you."

"You really need to stop being reminded," Fumika said, holding her tight and resting her head on Fuuka's shoulder. "I'll start to think you don't mean it and just want to use my body to pleasure yourself."

"As the one on the working end of the dildo, that's my line."

Fumika smacked her. Fuuka yelped, and Fumika frantically apologized for hitting her bump.

The walk back to the dorm was sedate. Fumika hung on to Fuuka's arm, their fingers entwined, carrying Fumika's doll, pillow and plushy. They'd left the rest behind, with a little money to see that Kaede would take them back where they belonged. Nice thing about being students, they got a hiring discount.

At the dorm, Fuuka put away the pillow and plushy, then joined her sister in the shower. They took turns washing each other's back, for once not indulging in much beyond tickling, nuzzling and an occasional kiss to areas perfectly acceptable to kiss in public, if just barely.

They had a quick dinner of various leftovers as the grudgingly decided to do their homework in case they were too tired after Kaede's training tomorrow. It was half-hearted, frustrating work, but then they were far from being class geniuses. They decided not to indulge in any games of naked Twister.

Finally, when the last dish was left to soak in the sink for 'some other time' and the last bit of homework was hurled with great frustration towards an opposite wall, the two went to bed. Only one bed, of course. One bunk was always unoccupied, unless they felt like a change. They lay together, holding each other, the night bringing out their childish, instinctive urge to hold what was most dear close by, lest it be taken away from them again.

"Sis ..." said one of them to the other. Did it really matter which? Hands reached, caressed.

Fuuka and Fumika made love until they passed out.

* * *

Kaede frowned slightly, mild dissatisfaction on her face in the pre-dawn light filtering into the dorm. The twins were once more dead to the world.

Shaking her head, she reached into her Artifact and pulled out her loli-kidnapping bags.

A few hours later, Fuuka and Fumika woke on the other side of the mountains surrounding Mahora, butt naked and, for some strange reason, mouths tasting of lima beans. In front of them, a stick had been thrust into the ground, a note attached to it.

"Start walking," it said succinctly.

"I think it's safe to say Kaede-neechan might be a little annoyed at us," Fuuka observed, trying to spit out the taste.

Fumika sighed. "We need to get an alarm clock."

Holding hands, fingers entwining, they began the trek back to Mahora.

**Next:** Chizuru


	16. Chizuru

"I thought you said you'd do it for free."

"I did do it for free. You have what you asked for, don't you? This is your gratuity. Also, it will set up a distraction so that eyes will be on me when you do your part rather than on me. You don't want any spanners in the works, do you?"

"I ... I want a promise that you won't -"

"Would a demon ask for that?"

"... all right."

* * *

Two days after Ayaka came home, she and Chizuru spent the afternoon finishing up their summer homework. Ayaka supposed that they could have done it much earlier. There'd been plenty of time while they were cooling their heels in Wales, after all. But no one, no matter how diligent and responsible, should be expected to do summer homework while in a foreign country, surely!

Regardless, they only had a few more days before the end of the summer break. Ayaka gave Chizuru help in the subjects - most of them, honestly - where she did better. In mathematics, the one subject where they were more or less peers, they could check each other's work. The time went by slowly, but that meant that they were together longer. Which was nice.

Then there was a knock on the door. "I'll get it. If it's a friendly looking older man offering flowers, I'm closing the door right away," Chizuru noted, getting up.

"You're never going to let me live that down, are you?" Ayaka groaned.

"Goodness, no," Chizuru replied cheerily. She opened the door just a crack, wishing as she did that it had a peephole. But it seemed that her concerns were groundless, this time. "Miyazaki?" she asked, not being familiar enough to use the 'Bookstore' nickname. "What's wrong?"

There were dark circles under the junior librarians eyes, which were staring at Chizuru in obvious panic. "Is iincho here? I need to talk to her!" the girl blurted.

Concerned, Chizuru undid the sliding deadbolt. "She's right here," she said, escorting Nodoka in.

Ayaka swivelled in her seat. "Miyazaki, is something -"

"Negi-sensei needs your help," Nodoka interrupted.

Quite suddenly, Ayaka went from a seated position to looming over Nodoka with her hands on the much smaller girl's shoulders. "Sorry, what was that again?" she said, even though she'd heard her quite clearly.

"Negi-sensei needs your help," Nodoka repeated, and felt deep shame as she watched Ayaka's eyes turn into red heart-shapes. But she soldiered on regardless. "Something has happened, and he's in trouble, and he needs to make more pactios with people, and you're the first one he chose."

"Chizuru, get the camera!" Ayaka squealed. "This event must be memorialized!"

_I am officially a bad person,_ Nodoka thought sadly. _I should probably feel worse. But I don't._

For her part, Chizuru was wondering what had happened to "I'm so happy he really is my little brother"-Ayaka, to bring back "I'll have sex with him to get him to pretend to be my little brother"-Ayaka. Ah well, she loved them both. She got up and got the camera. "Well, then, I guess we're off."

"Don't be silly! I need to put on a better outfit!" Ayaka declared as she dashed into her room. The sounds of closets being thrown open could be clearly heard.

Chizuru looked at Nodoka, noting that the girl seemed extremely anxious. Considering the situation, that was understandable. But ... hm. "Are Kotaro-kun and Natsumi-chan already there?" she asked casually.

"Eh? Oh. Yes, by now, probably. Sensei sent Misora-san to get them."

"I hope Kotaro-kun's not too upset about their date being interrupted," Chizuru continued absently.

"I think Natsumi-san would be more upset about that, really," Nodoka suggested.

"Probably true. She really wants him to appreciate plays more than he does," she continued, thinking about how her two young friends were planning to visit the zoo.

"Oh, are they going to a play?" Nodoka asked.

_Not what I was hoping for,_ Chizuru thought while nodding. _You've become a strong opponent, Miyazaki._

A moment later, Ayaka emerged from her room, dressed in a short pink mini-skirt and low-cut matching blouse, accessorized with delicate looking earrings and a nice hat. "How do I look?" she asked nervously.

Chizuru opened her mouth to suggest that the hat was a bit much, but Nodoka cut her off with a quick, "You're very lovely, iincho, now can we please hurry?"

Jogging quickly, they arrived at the cabin in the woods. "Isn't this where Evangeline-san lives?" Ayaka asked as Nodoka led the two of them up to the front door.

"Yes, Negi-sensei and the others are in her resort in the basement," Nodoka explained.

"... there is a resort in the basement? There is a basement?" Ayaka said, blinking. Since when did cabins have basements?

"It's magic, iincho," the library girl reminded her. She took them in through the open front door and down through the trapdoor into the basement, where the resort could be seen floating in the magical globe.

Ayaka could only stare in amazement. "Incredible," she murmured. "All of this, so fantastic." So much she'd never known ...

Chizuru was less impressed. "Are they really in there?" she asked skeptically. "I can't see any -"

"They're probably inside the buildings, that's where they were when I left. Look, I'll show you. Just touch the surface of the globe, and you'll be transported to that bridge, there." Nodoka suited the action to her words, and vanished. A tiny figure could be seen standing alone on the bridge, making a gesture that might have been a wave.

Ayaka held out her hand towards the globe herself.

"Wait a minute, I should go in before you do, in case this is a trap," Chizuru said, holding up a hand.

"What sort of person lets their friends take risks before she does?" Ayaka asked patiently.

"One with responsibilities beyond simple friendship," Chizuru pointed out gently.

Ayaka frowned, but turned it into a smile. "Together, then? Whither thou goest ..."

Chizuru felt a surge of love for the girl, but only let a tiny amount of it show in her usual gentle smile. "Ever and always," she replied.

Their hands covered each other, and, as one, pressed against the globe. Instantly, they found themselves in a room of marble, the walls of which stretched to a ceiling distant in darkness. On one of the walls, there was a heavy door with no visible handle or window.

"We've been had," Ayaka and Chizuru chorused.

"What was your first clue?" asked a sour voice from the corner. Hasegawa Chisame, dressed in a black bikini, was sitting there with an expression on her face that well-matched her tone.

The discovery that her class' bitter loner had been welcomed into Negi's circle of trusted allies - as she herself had not - had been particularly upsetting to Ayaka when she'd realized it, weeks ago. This probably influenced her tone when she said, "Hasegawa? What are you doing here? Did Miyazaki trick you, too?"

Chisame muttered something that Ayaka couldn't make out, but then spoke aloud. "No, I got myself into this mess. If Honya tricked you, I guess Eva-sama is a little more inclined towards quid pro quo than she said."

_Sama?_ thought Chizuru without saying anything.

"I came here ... oh, who am I kidding, you don't care," Chisame broke off her own explanation, shaking her head.

"On the contrary, if we understand what Evangeline-san wants from you, maybe we'll be closer to understanding what she wants from me or Chizuru. Why has she put you here, Hasegawa?" Ayaka pressed.

"She didn't bother to explain herself to me," Chisame answered, still clearly sulking. "We came back from a tanning session and came in here, yesterday, and the next thing I know, Chachamaru's sisters came out of nowhere and dragged me here. I don't know why she'd do this, I ... I want to be with her, even if it is sick, so the only reason I can think of is that ... it has to do with Negi," she concluded. And then, slumping, eyes tightly shut behind her glasses, she added, "Because I'm his half-sister", in a tiny, barely audible voice.

Ayaka blinked, then slowly walked over to the other girl, looking at her closely for the first time, seeing the similarities that she'd never bothered to notice, that familiar lock of hair in the front. She squatted down so that their faces were level. "Well, that would explain why I was brought here, then," she said gently. "We have that in common."

Chisame jerked up, eyes snapped open and staring open mouthed at Ayaka. "What," she said.

"Apparently, the Thousand Master really got around," Chizuru noted wryly.

"Oh, no. No. Not both of you," Chisame said, sounding utterly horrified as she began to stand up.

"No, just me," Ayaka replied calmly, from where she was still crouching. "He's not also Chizuru's father."

_I wish,_ Chizuru thought grimly. _Well, no, I don't, because that would wreck both her life and mine. But nearly any father would be better than the one I have now._

"But he is mine. And if he's yours, then that makes us -" Ayaka continued.

"No," Chisame said firmly.

"I'm afraid it's a matter of fact, Hase-"

"You can't even call me by my first name, you don't get to call me your sister! And anyway, what makes you think I want you for a sister? Why would I want a stuck-up, self-righteous shotacon like you around me?" Chisame sneered.

"Backatcha," Ayaka answered calmly.

"What?" she shrieked.

"Stuck up: hiding in the back of the room, thinking how much better you are than everyone else. Self-righteous: again, thinking how much better you are than everyone else. Shotacon: ... well, Chisame-chan, since you are one of Negi-sensei's comrades, you've gotten further with him than I ever did. Which amazes me, frankly, because as far as I can tell, you're a mean, bitter and unpleasant person."

"You think I don't know that! You think I don't know what kind of a person I am?" Chisame raged, her voice getting louder and higher as she went on. "But that's the worst part of this crap, the fact that I'm not that person anymore. I'd love to be that person, because all she felt was aggravation, and what I feel is so much worse. I'm in love with someone who will never and can never love me back, and it _hurts_!"

"No," Chizuru said, and took two quick steps to close the distance between her and Chisame ... then slapped the other girl across the face. " _That_ hurts."

"Chizuru!" Ayaka gasped, coming to her feet quickly. "That was not -"

Chisame interrupted Ayaka's protest with an inarticulate sob as tears began to flow from her eyes. Immediately, Ayaka folded the shorter girl into an embrace, giving Chizuru a reproachful glance as she did so.

_Yes, it was necessary. Something had to break her out of that spiral of grief and anger, and that was the only tool I had. Well, I could have kissed her, I suppose, but she's just not my type. And now the two of you can bond, instead of saying more hurtful things to each other._ Chizuru's thoughts did not reach her face. She silently walked over to the other side of the room and leaned against the wall, watching the two of them as Ayaka whispered quiet words of solace to her new-found sister.

A moment or so later, there was a snapping sound from the door, and with the groan of unoiled screws, it swung outward ... and Evangeline, wearing ridiculously sexy lingerie and a long black cape, walked in, followed by Chachamaru in a maid's costume. Chizuru noted that the robot girl's head quickly turned to look at where Chisame was standing in Ayaka's embrace. She imagined that she saw regret in her expression.

"Getting acquainted, I see," the small vampire said with a smile best described as leering.

"What is this about, Evangeline-san?" Ayaka replied, not letting go of Chisame as she turned to face their captor. "You've gone to a great deal of trouble to capture us, so clearly you must want something -"

"Correct," Eva interjected. "But believe it or not, I don't intend to do any of you permanent harm if I don't have to. You're here for two reasons. The first of them is to be bait."

"For Negi-sensei," Ayaka guessed, and felt Chisame trembling in her arms.

"Correct again. And no, as far as I know, he doesn't know that the two of you are his cursed father's children. I suspect that it wouldn't matter to him if he did."

"Of course not, we're his students, he'd come to help any of us. Including you," Ayaka pointed out angrily.

"Not even remotely what I meant, but never mind that now. The point is, knowing that you're being held here will bring him to rescue you, and then I'll have all three of the Thousand Master's children. I'm under a curse, you see, one that I can break with the Thousand Master's blood. If I were to drink the boya's blood, I'd have to drink nearly all of it, repeatedly, over days, to shatter the spell and set me free. But with three of you ... even though your blood isn't as magical as the boya's, I'll only have to drink a little bit from each of you." And despite her calm and mellow tone, fire clearly caught in her eyes. "And then I'll be free, free of this place."

"And we'll be your slaves until you decide to let us go," Ayaka guessed.

"There are far worse fates," Eva answered carelessly. "And it's not so bad, being my slave. You can attest to that, can't you, Chisame-chan?"

Chisame only shuddered.

"And what about me?" Chizuru asked, taking a step towards Eva. Four steps further. "I'm not a Springfield daughter. You can't use me for these purposes."

"What about you?" Eva's face expressed complete indifference. "You didn't have to tag along with Yukihiro."

"You should know better than that," Chizuru replied, taking another step. Three steps further. She could cover two in an eyeblink. How fast was Chachamaru? How strong? Unknowns. Impossible to base a plan of attack on unknowns. Thus, ignore them.

"Maybe I should. But I honestly don't care. Behave, and you'll probably live through this. Mess around, and -" Evangeline shrugged.

_Ayaka, I love you. Asuna, take care of Ayaka when I'm gone. Natsumi, Kotaro, be good to each other. Mother, forgive me one day. Father,_ burn in hell.

She could see Chachamaru stepping around her mistress, moving quickly to intercept. But she was equalling the robot's speed, or perhaps her adversary's 'heart' wasn't in it. Either way she covered the three steps in much less than an eyeblink, and her left hand was in motion and it slammed into Evangeline's cheek with the force of a freight train. 'Run' she tried to yell at Ayaka and Chisame, but all that emerged from her throat was an incoherent bellow of pain.

"That was very brave, Chizuru-san, but I think you regret doing it, don't you?" Eva asked a moment later.

"Yes. Yes, I do," Chizuru replied, tight-voiced.

"Okay, then. Because I do get why you did that, I'm going to let the act be its own punishment. Am I not merciful, Chachamaru?"

"Yes, mistress," the robot answered robotically.

"If you'll excuse me, I've got a boya to lure in. See you in a bit, kiddies." The vampire backed out of the room, waiting for Chachamaru to accompany her - and affecting not to notice her servant's polite bow of farewell - before closing the door and audibly locking it.

"Chizuru, are you all right?" Ayaka asked, clearly frightened.

"No," Chizuru answered calmly and precisely. "I think I have broken my wrist."

Outside, Evangeline walked down the corridor a brief distance before quietly hissing, "Yeooooow!" and reaching up to rub her bruised cheek. "Are we sure she's just a normal?"

Back in the cell, Ayaka, following Chizuru's instructions, quickly improvised a splint for her friend's wrist from a pen and some strips of cloth. "All right," the class representative said. "I think it's time we got out of here, don't you?"

"Nice trick. How?" Chisame asked, having recovered a bit of her former attitude.

"With this," she said, picking up the camera Chizuru had brought with her. Before a snarky comment could be made about the possible uses of said camera, she opened a hidden compartment on its side, producing a small plastic jar that contained tiny thin pieces of metal. "Lockpicks," Ayaka explained.

Chisame's eyes widened. "Wait ... what?"

"Brilliant," Chizuru said, ignoring the pain for a moment. "I wondered -"

"Oh, come now. You should know that I'm not that flighty. I thought something was off about Miyazaki's behavior, but I couldn't refuse her, on the chance that she was telling the truth and I was just misreading her. So I came prepared. Now all we have to do is -"

"- pick the lock that's on the other side of the door," interrupted Chisame, sour once more.

Ayaka paused, looked at the door, which, indeed, had no visible lock on the side facing them. "Well. That's hardly fair." Cough. "Plan B. Wait to be rescued. So, Chisame ... what's it like, kissing Negi-sensei? Academic curiosity only. Really."

"It's like a little slice of heaven," Chisame answered dully. "I bet that if he'd been conscious it would have been even better." A bit of spirit came back into her voice. "Want it second-hand?"

Ayaka looked at Chisame, plainly considering the idea. Chizuru coughed so as to remind her frequent lover that she was still conscious.

"Ahem," Ayaka said. "If the offer was genuinely made, I would have no objection. But I think you're trying to push me away. Rest assured, I will not go away just because you are unhappy to be related to me. You and I are sisters, and I am going to try to love you, no matter how hard you make it. All right?"

Chisame just looked away.

Chizuru almost wanted to laugh. The girl was just like Asuna, really, and she suspected that she and Ayaka would probably tear each other apart repeatedly as they came to care for one another. Thinking of Asuna made her realize that Negi's closest companion also had that distinctive hair lock, just like the one on Nekane Springfield's head. She wondered whether there might be a connection. But then the pain in her arm grew too much for her, and she fled it down into unconsciousness. Her last thought before the darkness took her was the hope that Chisame and Ayaka wouldn't have sex while she was out. That would just be wrong ...

**Next:** Ako


	17. Ako

When Ako went to bed that morning, after a long night where she had already spent some time in someone else's bed - not to mention someone else's room-mate's bed - she was happy. Sex with Akira had been even better than she'd imagined sex with another girl could be. The warm sensations of knowing how much the tall girl cared about her had left her feeling quite content with her life.

That feeling of contentment lasted a grand total of five seconds from the time that she woke up, about four hours later, when the buzzing vibration of Makie's cell phone jolted her out of a rather pleasant dream that she completely forgot within seconds. (For the curious, it involved her in an orgy with dozens of clones of herself.) She blinked, stared up at the bottom of the bunk above her, listening to Makie talk quietly on the phone, and abruptly realized that in addition to her feelings for Tosaka-san and Negi-kun, she was now having an affair with Akira! She was leading on three people, not just two!

Makie's head popped into view. "Hey, Ako, your cell phone's off. It's Madoka, she wants to know if you're up to some rehearsal with the rest of your band?"

"I am a wicked, wicked woman!" Ako wailed.

Unhesitantly, Makie held the cell phone to her ear. "She'll call you back. Kthxbye." Hanging up, she rolled out of her bunk and dropped down to the floor lighter than a feather. "Ooookay," she said, crawling into Ako's bunk beside her room-mate, and wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Tell Makie-sempai all about it."

"I can't," Ako whined. "It's just too awful ..." She was also conscious of the feeling of Makie's small but firm breast pressing into the side of her ribs. It felt really good. Which was really bad.

"Oh, come on, Ako, how bad could it be? What did you do, cheat or something?" Makie prodded.

Ako's jaw dropped. "How did you guess?" she asked, when she regained control of her mouth.

"Wait, seriously?" Makie let go of her embrace and backed away, looking shocked. "You cheated?"

Ako could only nod in misery.

"That's ... wow. I, I never would have expected it of you, Ako. I ... wow." She shook her head. "Well. There's really only one thing to do," she said with grim certitude.

"What? What should I -"

"You need to tear up the pages, or don't turn them in, at least. When Negi-kun asks, just say that you didn't have time, what with everything else. He won't be able to argue with that. I mean, it's what I'm planning on doing. It should be okay." Makie nodded soberly.

Ako stared at Makie. "What," she asked.

"You can't turn in summer homework if you cheated off of someone else's work, Ako. Come on, even a Baka Ranger like me knows that cheating is just wrong. I can't believe I'm having to lecture someone on proper academic behavior ..." She shook her head.

Ako kept right on staring. "Oh, Makie," she finally said. "It must be so nice to be you."

Makie frowned. The words sounded like a compliment, but she felt like she'd just been insulted, somehow.

* * *

Eventually, Ako calmed down enough to call Kugimin back and find out where the practice was going to be held. From the pauses in the other girl's replies, she suspected that Kugimin had overheard her anguished wail and was worried about her ... again. Nor, from the sidelong glances that Makie gave her, was her roommate really satisfied by her easy acceptance of Makie's advice.

Of course, she considered as she started to walk down the street carrying her bass in one hand, those glances could mean something else ...

_No, no, no! she thought angrily, holding a hand to the top of her head and shaking it rapidly, providing an interesting sight to the other people on the walkway. _Stop thinking along those lines! Not everyone wants to hop into bed with you! Or have sex on the floor, the dining room table, up against one of the walls ... agh! What's next, thinking that Kugimin, Saku and Misa want to jump your bones, too?__

Well, admittedly, Misa ... _No! Stop thinking like this!_

Eventually, she arrived at the rehearsal space that Misa had arranged, having long since lost the small number of people who'd been following along behind her, wondering what the crazy cute girl was going to do next. (Ako, completely wrapped up in her problems, hadn't even noticed them.) The other members of Dekopin Rocket greeted her cheerfully and they all got set up to practice.

At Kugimin's suggestion, they decided to start with a cover of Avril's 'Complicated'. Ako found that ironically appropriate, even if the lyrics didn't really apply to her situation. For once, she was relieved to be playing a supporting part. It gave her time to calm down, something she desperately needed. Of course, before she could get really settled, Kugimin set her off again by directing a wink towards her when she sang, "Take off/all your preppy clothes."

_She was just kidding, right? I'm not even wearing preppy clothes!_

"All right!" said Kugimiya cheerfully, after the song came to an end. "That was pretty good, I think."

"Pretty good nothing!" Sakurako cheered. "We rock! Budokan, here we come!"

"Eat it, Hokago Tea Time!" agreed Misa enthusiastically.

Kugimiya sweatdropped. "Um ... you guys do realize that actually booking the Budokan as a venue is probably going to cost us more money than Iincho spent to take us all to England, right?"

Quoth Misa, "Details!" Swirly tipped pointy finger.

Quoth Saku, "Buzzkill!" Swirly tipped pointy finger redux.

"Help me out here, Ako!" Kugimiya pleaded laughingly.

"Um, yeah. Go Budokan," Ako said absently.

"Oh, man," Kugimin sighed, and turned back to continue trying to moderate her friends' ambitions. By the time she did so, though, they'd moved on to another target.

"Mmm?" said Misa, looming over Ako with a gleam in her eye. "You seem a little distracted, Ako-chan. Why, you seem like you did after Nagi-san showed up for the first time, doesn't she, Sakurako?"

"She sure does. Did something more happen on your little trip than you've told us?" Sakurako asked, eyes gleaming as she stared up at Ako. (She had to bend over to do this, but she was used to that.)

As a matter of fact, Ako had probably left out more than she'd told. Discovering that Nagi-san was actually Negi, and then her relationship with Tosaka-san ... she'd only told the latter to Akira. Maybe keeping all these secrets was what was contributing to making her so uneasy and on edge. Maybe if she admitted something, she'd be calmer and more comfortable around her friends.

Admitting things to Akira had worked out pretty good, hadn't it? ... wait, no, that was the direction she didn't want things to go. Right?

Aloud, Ako sighed. "Okay, yes, I didn't tell you everything."

"Whee!" went Misa and Sakurako, while Madoka blinked audibly.

"You did meet up with Nagi-san during all of this, didn't you! I knew that it couldn't be as bad as you were making it out to be! Tell us about your summer romance, already!" Sakurako begged.

"It was that bad!" Ako protested. "You were lucky to be out of it, really! But ... well, yes, I did meet Nagi-san ... but ... well, various things happened, and I found out that he wasn't really who I thought he was." Telling them the whole truth would make them lose respect for their teacher, so she couldn't do that. "So ... that's over, really," she told their disappointed faces.

Madoka shook her head. "Man. I had a weird feeling that guy was too good to be true."

_You have no idea,_ Ako thought. "And, you know, it hurt, but I met up with another guy, and so it wasn't that bad."

"Oh, Ako, falling in love at first sight is really a bad habit to get into," Misa said, shaking her head. "You should try to be the one they fall in love with, and get lots of presents out of -"

"It wasn't like that," Ako insisted. "Actually, when we met, I thought he was a big jerk. But, well ..."

"Oh, no," said Kugimiya, facepalming. "Don't tell me you went and fell for a bad boy." Then she grew pale. "Oh, gawd, don't tell me the bad boy was Nagi-san's idiot friend!"

Ako struggled to reign in the mildly hysterical laughter that came from the idea of fighting Natsumi over Kotaro. "No, no, it wasn't like that, either! But, well, I did start to realize that he was a really sweet guy, underneath it all, and, well, this and that happened, and ..." She trailed off.

"'This and that'?" Sakurako quoted, incredulously. "Why are you being so vague? You didn't have sex with the guy or anything, did you?"

Ako fell silent and felt her face turning turning into a blue-haired tomato.

"Oh. My. God," said Sakurako, eyes wide, grinning like a maniac. "Misa-chin, Ako had sex!"

"You used protection, right?" Misa asked bluntly.

"Eh?" Ako asked. Whatever reaction she'd been expecting from the head cheerleader, this wasn't it.

"Protection," Misa articulated. "Didn't you attend my lectures?"

Ako shook her head. She'd been too embarrassed by the official sex ed classes to even consider going to Misa's allegedly much more detailed discussions on the topic. And anyway, it hadn't exactly been hard, figuring out what went where. Of course, Tosaka-san had probably not been an innocent when they met.

"Oh, Orum," Misa swore. From nowhere, she produced a box and pushed it into Ako's hands. Troyan, it read. Misa turned to look at her other two bandmates. "You've both still got the boxes I gave you, right?"

"Actually, I used them all to make little balloon animals," Sakurako admitted cheerfully.

"Saku!" Misa said irritably. "They're a _sacrament_ , dammit! Oh, here." She handed another mysteriously conjured box to Sakurako, who accepted it cheerfully. "What about you, Madoka?"

Madoka had simply been standing there staring in mute shock since Sakurako's exuberant deduction. She blinked when Misa directly addressed her, and her mind caught up with the conversation fairly quickly. She blushed and got angry. "Yes, I've still got them! When would I have used them, anyway?"

"Yeah, you're right," Misa agreed.

"Yeah. Hey, wait a minute!" Kugimiya protested when the implications of that remark hit her.

"Um," interrupted Ako, staring down at the box in her hands. "Misa-chin, are these -?"

"Yes."

"And you think I should -?"

"Can't trust the guys to remember it, they're usually kind of dumb about this sort of thing," Misa said with a nod. "If they were the ones who got knocked up, I suspect it would be a different thing. But they don't, and it's not."

"Oh. Well. Thank you, Misa-chin, but ... well, I can't accept something like this, it's too expensive a present," she said weakly.

"Nah, I buy them by the gross," Misa replied, shaking her head.

"You buy them by the -" Kugimiya started to shout.

"And it's a _sacrament_ , like I said. My god wants people to have easy access to birth control."

"Well, anyway, you didn't really let me finish," Ako continued, shying away from the disturbing aspects of this conversation. "Since, you know, I'm here, and he's over there, it's ... we're not really together, now, so, what I'm saying is, this ..." She tried to hand the box back to Misa.

"Keep it," Misa insisted. "After all, you'll find someone else, and then they'll come in handy then."

Ako tried to keep herself from laughing at the idea that she and Akira would find the contents of the box useful. It was distressingly easy, particularly after she started having vague ideas about what she and Negi-kun would be able to do with them. Wait, surely they'd be too big, and ... why did she think these things!

Eventually, Madoka managed to get the band back on track, this time rehearsing one of their own songs, a new one that she'd put together after the cultural festival. It was noteworthy for having an extended bass solo, and Ako managed to not mess it up, for once. The absence of the audience was probably a factor in that, and she still had the dreads about doing it in public, but right now, she felt pretty good about her performance.

Of course, considering her anxiety and the stress of the piece, she also felt incredibly sweaty. "Man, oh, man, it's a good thing I brought a change of clothes. Is there somewhere I could -"

Kugimiya quickly led her over into a storage room beside the rehearsal room. She watched as Ako pulled off her sweat-stained t-shirt and jeans, producing a pair of replacement slacks from her bag. "Um, listen, Ako, I ... don't know how to go about asking this, but ... are you really okay? With everything that's happened, I mean," she asked hesitantly.

No, would have been the simple answer. But remembering how much she'd made Akira worry forced her to say, "Yes, Kugimin, I'm fine. I've grown up a lot this summer. Not just the sex thing. A lot of things happened." _I fought, and I saw people die. Many of them came back. Many. Not all._

"Well ... good," Madoka said, for once not objecting to the Kugimin nickname. "I really hope this new guy is good for you, Ako."

Ako shook her head. "Well, he wanted to marry me -"

"Marry?" Madoka choked on the word.

"- but like I said, he's in the Magical World, and I'm ... not. Not yet, anyway." She did entertain vague notions of dropping out after she finished junior high and going back to Mundus Magica, but that was still more than a year in the future. "And anyway, there's someone else," she mused, only half-aware of what she was saying.

"Oh," Kugimin said, clearly startled. "Well, ah-heh, I guess then that the box is going to come in handy after all," she said, trying to fill the awkwardness with lame jokes.

Ako blushed. "Not really," she muttered.

"Eh?"

"... didn't say it was a boy ..." she muttered, even more softly.

But Madoka had very good ears. "Wait. You mean ... are you saying ..."

Ako nodded, just a little bit.

"You and Makie?" Madoka asked, amazed.

Ako promptly collapsed, then got up again, right in Madoka's face. "No! _God, no!_ Why would you think that? I mean, she's cute, and she's sweet, but how the heck would I be able to live with her after that? She'd be giggling all the time! The girl I like is ... she's mature, and calm, and gentle, and she's stood up for me when I was down, and -"

Madoka abruptly made her break off by reaching out with the fingers of her hand to touch Ako's lips. "Ako," she said gently. "Are you telling me that you love me?"

Ako's eyes went wide. She almost collapsed again, but Madoka reached out with her other hand to wrap around her back, and pull her in towards her.

"Oh, Ako," the taller girl muttered. "I was so sure you didn't know. I tried so hard to be happy for you and Nagi-san, but I couldn't help thinking that something was just wrong about him. And then I realized that I was jealous - of him, not you. You're such a sweet girl, Ako. You deserve so much better ... better than me, frankly, but I'm all that I've got."

She leaned down, then, and gently pressed her lips to Ako's.

Then the door opened and Misa stuck her head in. "Say, are you two done ye - Oh. Um. Never mind, please continue." She drew back and closed the door.

"Shit," said Madoka as she pulled back from Ako's lips. "There went the -"

"No, it's still here," said Ako, pushing forward to return the kiss, frantically rubbing at the sides of Madoka's shirt, getting her to respond by reaching back to start working at the clasp of Ako's bra.

Then the door opened and Misa stuck her head in again, this time holding up a rectangular sheet of latex. "Y'know, even though what you two are doing can't produce babies, you should probably still be careful, because you can pick up some pretty nasty diseases. This is what they call a dental dam, you put it over -"

"OUT!" roared Madoka.

"Okay, wrong time to evangelize, sorry," Misa said, not looking terribly sorry, as she pulled back once more and closed the door.

Madoka covered her face. "Yeah, that definitely killed the mood."

Ako nodded reluctant agreement. "I guess -"

"Tomorrow," Madoka said quickly. "Tomorrow afternoon, my place, I'll kick them both out and we'll have it all to ourselves. Okay?"

Ako swallowed, and nodded.

"Great," Kugimin said, backing away with a warm smile. "I'm counting the minutes." She headed out the door, a spring in her step that hadn't been there before.

Five seconds later, what Ako had just done crashed in on her. "I am a wicked, wicked, wicked woman!" she cried. She was not only leading on Tosaka-san and Negi-kun, she was fooling around on Akira with Madoka! How had this happened?

There was only one thing to do. She had to go to Akira and confess her betrayal, and then apologize to Madoka, and then, once they'd discarded her like the wretch that she was, live the rest of her life alone and miserable. She pulled on her spare shirt and went out to collect her bass, shaking her head as she trudged along to the dorms.

When she reached Akira and Yuna's room, Ako held up her hand to knock. Before she could do, the door was flung open, and Akira let out a sigh. "Oh," she said. "Ako ... I was hoping it was Yuna. I still haven't seen or heard from her."

"She still hasn't come back?" Ako asked, startled.

"No, and there's no one at her father's place. I went and checked. Sat-chan told me that she and her father were in for breakfast this morning, but ... oh, what am I doing, come in, come in," the tall swimmer said, and pulled Ako in to the room, closed the door ... and surrounded her with a firm embrace.

"I'm so glad you came back," Akira said, voice unusually thick. "I was afraid you might be having second thoughts about this, regretting what we did." She kissed the top of Ako's head. "I'm so glad you came back," she repeated.

_Now._ Now she had to tell her. Ako opened her mouth.

The phone rang. Akira dropped the embrace and turned around to pick it up. "Long distance?" she murmured. Answering the phone, she said, "Moshi moshi?"

Then, "Yuna! Where are you?"

Then, " _What are you doing in Amsterdam?_ " Akira beckoned for Ako to come closer and listen in. Hesitantly, she did so.

"... with my dad at his conference," Yuna was saying. "Say hi to Akira, daddy,"

"Hello, Akira-kun," said a male voice, sounding just a bit out of breath. "Thank you for taking care of Yuna all these -"

Yuna interrupted. "Anyway, I'm having a blast, this place rocks. So no more messages on my phone, 'kay? I'll be back when the new term starts. Tell everyone how much they should envy me! See ya!" And with that she hung up.

* * *

In a hotel room in Amsterdam, Professor Akashi gently caressed Yuna's face as he took her from behind. She moaned in pleasure as she hung up the phone. He'd been right, having his thing in her other hole was even better than having his fingers there. And she wasn't in any danger of getting pregnant like this!

Not that the idea of having his children bothered her much.

Tomorrow, or technically later this morning, they were going to go out to the red light district to look at hookers together. She had a wonderful fantasy of finding one who reminded her of her mother (or possibly Donet) and being with her and her dad. It was her ultimate fantasy. (Well, other than the one where she took on the entire WNBA and left them breathless, both on and off the court.)

As her father climaxed within her yet again, Yuna let out a sigh of utter satisfaction.

* * *

"Well, I guess she's okay, then," said Ako.

Slowly, Akira set down the phone, and immediately pulled Ako back into an embrace, kissing her passionately. "It's just us, then," she said, between kisses. "No interruptions."

"Um, well, there's something I should probably tell you," Ako said, pulling back.

"Can it wait until later?" Akira asked, naked need shining in her eyes.

Seeing that need, Ako melted. "Yes," she answered weakly, and kissed back.

As she felt her clothes pulling off, and their naked bodies wrapping around each other, Ako knew that there would be no later. If Akira even remembered, she'd tell her it didn't matter. And tomorrow, she'd go to Madoka's place and be with her. And probably there would be others.

Ako was a wicked woman.

And she was starting to not mind it all that much.

**Next** : Mana


	18. Mana

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning. Some of the things that will happen in this chapter or the next aren't going to make a lot of sense. You're only seeing part of the story. The other part is someone else's to tell.

"All right," said Mana wearily. "If I say, all is forgiven, I regard you with utter adoration, daddy dearest, will you at least think about leaving sometime soon?"

"Nah. But I'd laugh a bit," Rakan replied evenly, noshing on some natto.

"Jesus," the half-Mazoku miko muttered, holding a hand over her eyes. (For those curious, the name did in fact burn her lips, but she was tough enough to take it.)

"I dunno what you want from me," he said with a shrug. "The whole world knows what a lousy houseguest I am. Hey, I'd think your -"

"Let's not go there. And anyway, I dunno what you want from me. What are you trying to accomplish, here?" She glared at him across the table.

He set down the natto and looked at her seriously, even mournfully. "Is it so hard to believe that I want to get to know my only daughter?"

"Yes," she answered succinctly. "The people who told me explicitly what a lousy houseguest you are also made it pretty clear that you were well aware of the fact that I'd come into the world when I did. So you've had fourteen years to get to know me, and didn't do so until now. So what's the real reason?"

"Eh, fair cop," he admitted. "When you get right down to it, I'm just satisfying an old curious itch. Couldn't come here before now, and all Nagi's stories about the place sorta got to me after a while. So now I can, here I am. And you and the other kids are pretty much the only people I know around here, so ..." He shrugged.

"You are an idiot," Mana pronounced.

"This too is part of my legend," he agreed.

Shaking her head, Mana stood up from where she was seated on the floor across the kotatsu from him. "Enough," she said wearily. "I'm going to dump you on Negi and his mother, let them decide what to do with you. Where the hell are my pants?" Not wearing clothes for the last day or so had left her a little out of practice.

"Don't hurry on my account," Rakan said, frankly admiring the length of her leg.

Mana sighed disgustedly. "There really is no limit to your perversion, is there?"

"Haven't found it yet," he admitted cheerfully.

"Well, rest assured, I have no interest in following my mother's path. In anything." She finally found the pants and started to pulled them on. "Least of all her abysmal taste in men," she added as she turned to look at him squarely ... and saw just a tiny bit of hurt flash across his face before the pose of nonchalant, world-weary amusement hid it completely. A better person would probably have felt guilty.

Mana was not a better person.

* * *

Over in Negi's seraglio - really, there was no other appropriate term by this point - Arika lay back on the bottom bunk in languid satisfaction, pulling Setsuna up from where the hanyou had just brought her to a shrieking climax to kiss those wonderful lips. "You are incredible at this," she told the girl. "My compliments to your former lovers, who taught you so well."

"Um, well, actually, I've only ever been with ojousama before all of this happened," Setsuna hesitantly explained. And despite how warm the compliment made her, ojousama was still the only one she wanted to be with after all of this. Absolutely. Definitely. No other fantasies at all. None.

"Really?" Arika asked, arching an eyebrow. "You must have played with each other a great deal, to become so skillful." But then why was Konoka's own technique so pitiful?

"Um, well, actually," Setsuna stammered, conscious of the fact that she was saying that far too much. "We only, well, we didn't, er, not until a couple of days ago." That was really what had started the whole mess, hadn't it?

Arika's eyes went wide.

A moment later, her head popped up beside the top bunk, where Negi was pumping away like a derrick between Asuna's legs with his mouth firmly affixed to her left nipple. "Asuna, you _need_ to have sex with Setsuna," she announced.

"I'm kind of in the middle of something right now," Asuna replied, her words interspersed with gasps of pleasure.

"You can do that any time, given how easily your brother gets it up. A natural talent like Setsuna's must be experienced. She's already your teacher, right? Well, now she will teach you how to please a woman, which will make our own time together more enjoyable for us both."

"I haven't said I'll do that yet!" Asuna protested, opening an eye (the blue one, for those curious) to glare at her mother. So what if she'd implied it? She was a woman and got to change her mind!

Before Arika could reply to that, there was a knock at the door. Grumbling, she stepped back off the bunkbeds and pulled on a housecoat before padding to the door and opening it.

"I have a problem," Konoka said, standing there in the same clothes she'd been wearing when she stormed away earlier. "You're right, I have a problem. I need to talk to Secchan. She's here, right? I need to talk to her, privately. Please?" she asked, piteously.

Arika's heart softened. "Just a moment," she said, then walked back into the room, picked up likely looking clothes from the floor and snapped her fingers. Immediately, the clothes vanished from her hands and appeared in the appropriate places on Setsuna's no-longer-nude body.

"Your lover calls, Setsuna-chan," Arika informed the swordswoman with a gentle smile. "Be kind to her, but don't let her off the hook too easily."

"She's -" Setsuna said, quickly getting to her feet.

"Hallway," Arika said, though the word was largely spoken to a dust cloud kicked up by Setsuna's rapid exit. She settled down on the bottom bunk again, listening to her children with a smile and thinking happy thoughts about her grandchildren to come.

Out in the hallway, Setsuna threw herself into Konoka's arms. "Kono-chan!" she cried.

"Secchan!" Konoka replied, just as happy. But when Setsuna tried to kiss her, she shook her head. "No. No, Secchan, I've been talking to Haruna about this, and she's right, we need to get back to being a family. A normal family. So we're going to go see Daddy and make this right. Okay?"

Setsuna was so happy to see Konoka again, and see that she wasn't angry or hurt, that she would have agreed to just about anything. "Yes, of course, ojousama."

Konoka just stared.

"Ojousama?" Setsuna repeated.

"We're in private," Konoka said bluntly. "I told you, not while we're in private. One thing, Secchan, _one tiny little thing!_ Okay, to hell with what Haruna thinks, let's go get Daddy and make him repent some more."

"But -"

"You want me to forgive you for screwing around with Negi-kun and Asuna behind my back, don't you?"

"... yes, Kono-chan."

"Well, all right, then. Off we go ..."

* * *

Again, back in the seraglio, Negi had just climaxed yet again atop Asuna's supine form, and they were engaged in post-coital cuddling. Arika was beginning to become just a tad bit jealous of her daughter, whose womb had been bathed so often in Negi's rich masculine juices, whereas he had never achieved climax with her. Well, there would be time for that after Asuna accepted her.

There was another firm knock on the door, and once again, Arika took it on herself to act as the janitor for her children by answering it.

"Hey, sexy, how's tricks?" asked Rakan, grinning.

She absently laid him flat on the floor with a single blow, then looked to Mana for an explanation. Once Mana stopped blinking rapidly, she turned to explain. "Can you take him in? I don't think I can take another day of having to look after him."

"Understandable," Arika said, not questioning why Mana had taken this responsibility on herself.

"Oh, man, I missed that right hook of yours," Rakan said, getting up and coughing up some blood. "Damn, but it's good to see you again." He was still grinning.

"I'll see what I can do," Arika continued talking to Mana as though she hadn't been interrupted. "Just a moment please." She stepped back, closed the door and walked back into the dorm room, again grabbing a fistful of appropriate clothes in each hand and then snapping her fingers. Abruptly, both Negi and Asuna were fully clothed, although Asuna made a choking noise and pulled off the bra, which had turned out to be one of Yuna's leftovers from a few days ago.

"That is a very useful spell, okaasama," Negi said politely.

"One of your father's favored kindermagics," Arika replied. "Of course, he developed the inverted form first. Regardless, we have company coming, so keep it platonic for the duration, all right?" Without waiting for an answer, she went back to the door and opened it to let Mana and Rakan enter.

"Rakan-san!" Negi said excitedly. "I didn't really think you'd take our offer to come here and visit!"

"Eh, well, since you two and Glasses Girl went to all that trouble to make it so I could, seemed a shame not to take advantage," Rakan said, fistbumping Negi. He clearly took note of the clothes scattered around the room, but said nothing.

"And you went to Captain Tatsumiya first, because ..." Negi continued, then trailed off, and blinked. "Wait, why did you go to Captain Tatsumiya first?"

"Cause she's my kid," Rakan answered cheerfully.

"Oh, that makes sense," Negi said, nodding.

An interval passed.

"Dwah?" Negi and Asuna chorused.

"Ah, I thought I noted a resemblance," Arika said, nodding.

"Dwah?" Negi and Asuna repeated.

"Here we go," Mana muttered, facepalming.

"But, Rakan-san ... how is that possible?" Negi asked, suddenly all confused and helpless.

"Well, it's kind of a funny story," Rakan began.

"There's nothing funny about it. It is a grim tale of mistakes and betrayal, lies and deceit," Mana interrupted.

"So, yeah, funny. Anyway, you know about Hellas, right? Well, the Helladians _can_ breed with humans, and a lot of them do. 's why they're called demihumans, sometimes, because a lot of 'em are about half human when you add it all up. And in my case, my dad was not only human but human from here on the Old World, from some place called Puerto Rico. Is that far from here, incidentally?"

"Yes," said Nagi and Mana, simultaneously. Asuna had no notion of geography.

"Eh, well, if I wanna go there I'll probably just swim. Well, this and that happened, and well, you know my story. Anyway, about sixteen years ago, I was peacefully minding my own business -"

Arika coughed politely.

"- no, really. Anyway, there I was, and what what one thing and another, I stumbled into the lair of the Mazoku Queen Diamond Eyed Yakushototo and her 108 daughters. They had a standing challenge that anyone who satisfied all of the daughters would go free. Well, a few hours later, the Queen was trying to welch on her end of the deal, claiming I couldn't possibly have really satisfied them, so I persuaded her not to do that by demonstrating, and went on my way. And a little while after that she had a 109th daughter."

"Me," Mana interjected, wearily lifting a hand. "Half Mazoku, and a quarter Puerto Rican. You would not believe how much my 108 half-sisters hate this idiot."

"Ruined them for all other men, probably," Rakan said without a hint of false modesty.

"Anyway, I used a variation on his last name, Arkana, as my family name for a few years, before the Tatsumiya family did me the honor of adopting me," Mana concluded. "It's probably a violation of filial piety, but could you please take this jackass off my hands? I just recovered from the drinking binge he took me on when he showed up, and I have a distinct impression that he wants to go on another one."

"Oh, well, cer- wait a minute, drinking binge? Rakan-san, you can't take my students on drinking binges!" Negi protested.

Rakan blinked. This seemed a strange, utterly bewildering notion to him. He was also sort of surprised that Negi didn't seem confused by the innuendo he'd been spouting.

Before he could open his mouth to express that surprise, which would have led to Negi explaining that it wasn't appropriate, which would have led to a fight that demolished most of the dorm, there was a sudden scrabbling at the window.

"Aniki!" gasped Chamo. "Something terrible has happened!"

* * *

"Eh? Nodoka-san is trying to do kidnap Yue-san? And she's working with Master to do it? And she lured Iincho-san and Chizuru-san to Master's home? And Chisame-san is there too! This is terrible!" Negi summarized.

"Swear to god, you sound like someone doing a next episode preview sometimes," Asuna complained.

"Eh?" Then he shook his head. "Well, never mind that now. We have to do something!"

"Yeah, well, have fun with that," Mana said, edging towards the door.

"Wait a minute, you said that you were on Negi's side now!" Asuna pointed out.

Mana paused at the door. "No, what I said was, I've decided to believe in him. In matters where the fate of worlds is at stake, I will definitely lend him all my strength without reservation, which is something money can't buy. For everything else, like silly little disputes between him and the Dark Evangel, there's MasterCard."

"Ah, yes, I recognize your father so clearly in you from that," Arika noted. Rakan was smiling like a proud papa.

Mana briefly considered whether it would be worth it to break her arm, but her chain of thought was interrupted when Arika scribbled down some numbers on a piece of scrap paper and tossed it in her direction like a shuriken. She caught it, of course, and looked at them. Then looked at them. "This is legitimate?" she asked in a hushed tone.

"Feel free to check," Arika said patiently.

Mana pulled out her cell phone and promptly dialled her banker in Zurich. Speaking in French, she asked him to check whether there was an account at the number she'd been given, and whether it could support a withdrawal of funds in the amount listed.

"Facilement," he answered a moment later.

"Un moment, s'il vous plait." She lowered the phone to her shoulder. "My services are at your command. What's the transfer code?"

Arika recited a short string of letters and numbers, which Mana repeated into the phone. Several million dollars richer, she hung up and said, "So, what's the plan?" she asked Negi patiently.

"Well, we should head for Master's house, and -"

"I don't like your plan," she interrupted.

"Yeah, it sucks," Asuna agreed.

"Negi, given the givens, does it not seem likely that Evangeline is trying to lure you to that precise location?" Arika asked calmly.

"Um. Well, yes, but ..."

"And you think giving her what she wants is a good idea?"

"Um. Well, no, but ..."

"So then. How is this for a better plan - Asuna, you and Negi will act as though you have not received the information that she arranged to be leaked to you -"

"Hey, wait a minute, I made a legitimate escape!" Chamo protested.

"Silence, sub-creature," Arika said absently. "Had she wished to prevent your escape, it would have been easy for her to do so. Obviously, your escape was a part of her plan. Now, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted - Asuna, you and Negi will casually stroll around, accompanied by a shikigami of me. The sight of you doing this, seen through her subversion of Mahora's magical surveillance system, will confuse her, making it more likely for the other part of the plan to work. Mana-san, while this is happening, you will maintain a secure perimeter around them."

Mana nodded. This seemed easy enough.

"Meanwhile, I will be infiltrating Evangeline's cabin and rescuing her prisoners," Arika concluded.

That sounded impossible.

"Wait, what?" said Negi. "Mother, that's -"

"Are you going to say that it's dangerous?" Arika said in a tone that could also be described as dangerous. "Negi, I have spent the last nine years in a small cell. I have not any fun in all that time. I deserve a little entertainment, and I need a little exercise. Besides which, I very much want to test my steel against that person. Your father was quite fond of teasing me about her crush on him in the early stages of it, and I admit to having a bit of a complex about it. I _very_ much want to test my steel against that person." She was smiling when she said it. She looked oddly like Tsukuyomi at that moment.

Negi swallowed. "But I don't want you to hurt Master, and I don't want you to get hurt either," he said desperately.

"Pain and pleasure are both the flavors of life, my son. I am sure that person understands this as well as I do," Arika said with grim finality.

Asuna looked away, remembering what Eva had told her about her life, so long ago it seemed. She suspected that pleasure had had very little to do with the little vampire's 'life' ... and having given herself to pleasure quite a bit this last little while, she knew just how much Eva had been missing.

"I note that you haven't asked me if I'm gonna take part in this little scheme of yours," Rakan interjected.

"I was expecting that you'd want a ridiculous amount of money to do so, and since I only hand out one ridiculous amount of money on any given day, I was going to blackmail you by mentioning -" Arika began to explain.

"Let's not go there!" Rakan interrupted. "Anyway, I'm perfectly willing to do this one for free. Call it in celebration of our reunion, Princess."

"Queen," Arika said in the same dangerous tone as before..

Rakan continued "And besides, I kinda like Glasses, and I sorta owe her for helping to make it so I can come here,"

_And you have a vague awareness that she's Nagi's daughter, and typically idiotic plans about using her to sublimate your homoerotic fixation on him,_ Arika thought. _Well, perhaps I'm being too harsh. They're not totally idiotic. In many ways, Chisame is much more like Nagi than Negi could ever be._ "All right, I'll just get changed, and then we can get started." She headed towards the toilet area, planning to change there.

"Could I have a word or two in private, first?" Rakan asked.

"Of course," she said, and beckoned for him to follow her.

"Unusually discrete of you," she said once the door closed behind them and she dropped the housecoat, leaving her clad in nothing but a lifted eyebrow of inquiry.

Rakan was unmoved. At least visibly. "You're initiating those two into the worship of Aphrodite and Eros, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am fucking them, and encouraging them to fuck each other," she answered bluntly, and only slightly inaccurately. "Is this going to be a problem?"

"Nah," Rakan said dismissively. "Heroes, kings and gods, we make our own rules. Just wanted to make sure I was reading the situation right, that's all."

"Fine," Arika said. "Incidentally, you're welcome to join us. Eishun has."

Rakan's eyebrows went up. "You got Eishun to take part in an orgy. Huh! I'd like to have seen that. But it's probably not gonna happen. I think I know what you're tryin' to do -"

"I'm perfectly forthright about what I'm trying to do. I want to test-drive you to make sure you're good enough for Theodora. She and I are very good friends, you know, and I'm not impressed by the satisfying 109 Mazoku story. Mazoku are easy."

"- but that's not gonna happen, either," Rakan continued. "She's a sweet kid, but she'd have to give up the throne. They'd never let her marry -"

"Gosh, really?" Arika said flatly. "It's almost like she wants to do that, and like I agree with her, and like we plan to go on madcap adventures across two worlds once she does so. I know it's hard, but could you try to be a little less of an idiot?" Finger flick to the head. sending him flying back against the door with a grunt. "And be a dear and pass me that garment bag?"

A moment later, she emerged from the bathroom, clad in tight yellow leather pants, knee length boots and a yellow jacket zipped up to her neck, with black stripes down the arms.

"Let's do this thing," she said, smiling grimly.

**Next:** Evangeline.


	19. Evangeline

And so they set out.

Rakan and Mana walked a ways ahead of the others, both keeping an eye out for any potential threats. Had either spotted any, they would likely have unleashed a massive response that would show up on sattelite imaging. Fortunately for the peace of the world, they didn't. Pretty much the only person they met was a shocked looking Yuna.

"Hey, Gunslinger Girl," Rakan said with a jaunty wave.

Now looking a little confused, the girl returned the wave but said nothing in reply. That struck Rakan as being a little odd, but maybe she was just surprised to see him here in Mundus Vetus. Mana, more suspicious in nature as well as more aware of her classmates' bodies, noticed some other oddities about the girl, and discretely turned to keep an eye on her.

Despite her concerns, however, nothing happened as the girl walked past their charges, who were strolling along the path some distance behind them. Negi and Asuna were on either side of the shikigami duplicate of Arika, who tottered along with a bemused smile on her face, occasionally telling the two of them that she loved them. Negi's replies were polite, while Asuna frequently snarked.

"I think we're missing something," Negi murmured. "Something about these plans just doesn't add up."

"Maybe it's all just a trick?" Asuna said. "Maybe she's trying to teach you another lesson." She didn't want to believe that their mentor had reverted to her old habits so easily either. Eva had been cruel to her, but she'd usually had good intentions underneath it all, every time.

"I don't think that's it, but ..." her brother/nephew/lover trailed off, shaking his head. "We're definitely missing something."

* * *

Arika (the real one, this time) stood behind the concealment of a tree and contemplated the cabin in the woods. She spotted several easy points of entry. The windows were guarded by pretty potent warding spells, but she had ways of getting around those. In addition, there was a fairly obvious hidden exit to an escape passage off to one side of the clearing. Once she dealt with whatever defenses were in that passage, it would certainly be the safest, easiest route directly to the cabin's basement.

Seconds later, the front door was kicked off its hinges and she entered in a low roll. Doing this Nagi-style rather than her own was incredibly dangerous (since she wasn't quite in Nagi's weight class) but it would also be a lot more fun. At least, it would be fun as long as her beloved never found out. A second to think about their last passionate encounter, to let the warmth of that memory fill her usually cold heart, and then she focused on the business at hand.

No guards greeted her, and so she rose up and began walking in slow, cautious, circling steps through the cabin - circling quickly enough that her blindspot moved too frequently to be exploited, but not fast enough to make her dizzy. She had never come here - her one meeting with her husband's stalker had occurred in Konoemon's office, a more neutral location - but Negi's descriptions before she set out had been photographically detailed.

Arika made her way to the stairs leading down into the basement, but avoided using them, instead walking to the edge of the breach between the floors then dropping into it, catching the floorboard to give a moment of hangtime to survey the landing area, before letting herself fall. It was more dangerous, but paradoxically more cautious as well; had she herself been building a sanctuary like this and expecting company, she'd have put traps on the stairs.

Past rows of creepy dolls, she found the resort she'd been told about. Once, apparently, there had been satellite globes surrounding the central one, but those had been put away for the moment. Arika cautiously reached towards the globe with her hand.

"I wouldn't," said the cowled presence on the other side of it.

She let her hand drop and took a step back. "I'm amazed to learn that there's something you wouldn't do, Albireo," she said dryly.

"As am I, Arika. Are you going to ask?"

"It would be rude," she replied.

"Gracious even under these circumstances," Al said, clearly amused. "Very well. I swear to you, by the love I bore and bear for Nagi, the only thing I hold sacred, that I did not consciously betray either of you when they came for me." His mouth twisted. "They may have gotten your location from my mind after I lost consciousness, but I think that I managed to seal my memories before they could. I cannot say for sure, but there are other suspects, as you well know."

Her own mouth twisted, an uncomfortable reminder of how much she had in common with the saturnine mage before her. "There are. Two living, and one dead ... for my childrens' sake, as well as my own, I hope it was Gateau." Arika nodded towards the globe. "Do you know what that one's up to?"

"I do not," he replied, shaking his head. "Kitty and I are not on speaking terms at the moment. Projecting this image is taxing my abilities, but I believe that I can also alter the teleportal spell so that it won't deposit you in the same cell as Negi's two students. I cannot hide the alterations from Eva, nor can I offer you any assistance once you're inside."

Arika nodded sharply. "I came here expecting to have no assistance at all. Thank you, Al. I will see what I can do to speed your healing once this is done."

"Eh, don't bother. I kind of enjoy snoozing in my pavillon." Al raised a hand and began a quiet chant in Latin, invoking a spell of metamagic. "Tis done," he said. "But if you would repay me, Arika, try to be kind to Eva. She is a better person than she realizes."

"Some have said that about you," Arika said as she reached for the globe.

"Liars and knaves, the lot of them."

"Indeed." And then she was gone.

* * *

She found herself in a castle hallway, surrounded by a dozen or so robots in maid outfits. Clearly, Eva had been expecting Al to offer his assistance. (Either that, or they were in on it together. It was so hard not to be paranoid sometimes.) She slowly turned in a circle, evaluating her opposition. Matters didn't look good.

"None of you is the actual Chachamaru Karukuri, correct?" she asked.

"Please surrender, Arika-sama," one of the robots said politely. "Our instructions are to avoid causing you harm if at all possible, but the Mistress recognized that you might make that difficult."

"I would appreciate an answer to my question before I give any thought to your proposal," Arika answered brusquely.

"Very well," said the robot beside the one who'd spoken earlier. "You are correct that none of us are the prototype Chachamaru Karukuri, the mistress' primary partner and member of Class 3-A of Mahora Academy Junior High School for Girls. We are mass production models running a more limited version of her operating system. Regardless of this -"

"Oh, I think that _this_ is pertinent. I am given to understand that my son is quite fond of that particular construct, and I would hate to do her injury and thus hurt his feelings. So I'm glad she is not among you." Arika stood with her hands open and ready.

"Please be reasonable, Arika-sama. Do you really think that you are our equal in strength or speed? You are well-known to be a capable general and warrior, but do you think that you are superhuman?"

"No," Arika answered.

"Then you must surrender."

"No. And I think that you have misunderstood my earlier refusal of your request for me to be reasonable to be an answer in the negative to your two successive questions." She turned her wrist slightly, and her Pactio card slid out of it into her hand. "Adeat," she said. A pair of gleaming knives appeared in her hands, and at once, she began the Human Killing Dance. That it was now used to destroy the false life of pantomines of humanity in no way detracted from its terrible, savage beauty.

In a way, it was funny, she mused as her blades sliced through phoney flesh and plastic and metal, drawing on the almost unlimited power behind the pact to enhance her strength and speed far beyond what the robots could do. The picture of the woman warrior always had her armed with a sword; even her own daughter used one. Swords were the noble weapon, or so the grand lie proclaimed. The irony was that a sword was a defensive weapon - the reason for having such a long blade was to keep opponents at a distance. In close-in fighting, which was what almost all battle came down to in the end, that length was a disadvantage, preventing you from putting your strength behind the blade's point.

For close-in fighting, to protect herself, a girl needed a knife. And she had hers.

In more time than it took to tell it, the robots lay in shattered pieces all around her. She was not unmarked, however. Sparks had scorched her leather, lubricants stained them, and one of the robots had managed to cut her cheek before she sliced off its arms and legs. But she was alive, and they ... had never been, but were no longer functional, and that was how she'd wanted it.

"Got any more of these dolls, Dark Evangel?" she called out.

"As a matter of fact, I do," a voice echoed through the halls. "It will take some time to bring them online, however. So why not skip ahead to the boss stage? Just follow the sound of my voice, and it'll lead you right to me. Assuming that this isn't a trap, of course."

"I think I'll take that chance, obaasan," Arika replied as she started running down the hallway, keeping an eye out for the aforementioned trap or traps. As well as other things.

"What do you just call me?" the voice asked, sounding startled.

"Obaasan," she repeated, articulating each syllable. "Aunt, or technically great-aunt, with a few more greats in there. You're not the only one well-informed, Queen of Puppets. I have heard stories about the first, failed attempt to breed someone with Magic Cancel. How they thought they had a real prospect on their hands, and so she was hidden away in a castle on Mundus Vetus. How someone objected to the plan, and so worked a magic to turn their prospect into a Shinso. I know about you," she concluded.

"And doubtless find the story funny," came the angry hiss of the voice as she reached a turn in the corridor.

No, not here. "Not for the most part, no. But I have to admit that I find the part where you swear vengeance on the one who did this to you, and possibly even accomplish it, to be quite a laugh. So self-absorbed, you never even realize that he did you a favor. Or does the prospect of spending centuries in suspension, waiting to be hauled out to be used as a weapon, have some perverse amusement for you?" Like the first Asuna. Like what they'd wanted to do to her baby.

"Shut up," said the voice, now in a snarl. "Do you have any idea -"

"No, and I don't care!" Arika snapped. Yes. There. "You've had a hard life. So have I. So has everyone else in the world, but most of them don't choose to sit around on their asses playing video games and talking about how rotten they have it. And they don't kidnap the children of their stalker-like fixation as part of some sort of twisted plot against him." She reached the bend, and paused there. "My daughter actually thinks you deserve to be happy. Rest assured, I don't share her naivete. You can rot, for all I care."

Silence from the speakers, and for a moment she wondered if maybe she'd driven the vampire into some sort of silent frenzy. Then the voice began again. "You're jealous," she said, with a tone of disbelieving wonder. "But that doesn't make any sense. You're not jealous of the other women he took to his bed, and why should you be, when you've done as many men and women alike. But you're jealous of me. Because you know that I could have given him something you never could. And that terrifies you, because you know you would have lost him to me."

Fury almost made her ruin her careful work. "He never would have taken your sick offer, Mage of the Evil Dead! His was the flame of life, not to be consumed by some sick parody of it -"

"I suppose that we will yet see, won't we? But in the interim, why don't you come down here, to the end of the hall, and we will settle this, face to face."

"Suits me fine," Arika said, and set herself to walking.

She headed down the corridor, knives ready at her side, until she reached a doorway marked with the words, Lasciate Ogni 'Speranza, Voi Ch'entrate. without hesitation, she passed within ... to find Evangeline, dressed in lingerie and her cape, lounging on a dark throne and delicately sucking a lollypop in the center of the pitch black room beyond. Chachazero mimicked her mistress' posture on the throne's arm.

"Fool," the vampire said, and behind the woman in yellow leather, a wall of thick iron slid down to block the door. Behind it, locks could be heard engaging. "You walked right into the trap. Now, even if you somehow go beyond the impossible and defeat us, you will never be able to escape from this place. Even those blades you carry won't cut through that, not without years of work."

"And we're going to kill you before that happens," Chachazero interjected. She looked up at her mistress with something sickeningly like hope on her unchanging features. "I really _do_ get to kill her, right? No more capture games? I get to cut her open and bathe in her blood and viscera? Like the good old days?"

"Yes," Evangeline confirmed, her eyes little more than white pinpricks in a sea of red. "Well, Queen of Calamity? What have you to say to that?"

"Never use an ace when a two will do," the woman replied, in a much higher than usual voice. Then her eyes went blank and her head tilted far to one side. "You make love like a god, Nagi-kun," added the shikigami in Arika's form.

Eva bit the lollypop cleanly in half.

* * *

Arika (the real one, again) ran headlong down the corridor, turning aside to the branch that came just before the marked doorway that had sealed itself off. She had been tempted to go down to face the vampire in person after that last calumny, but self-control had saved her once again, and so she'd stood in the blind spot in the castle's security network, and created her shikigami duplicate. The point of this exercise wasn't to confront Evangeline, it was to rescue the girls. Her pride could wait another day.

But that day would come.

She slowed as she saw that the hallway came to an end with a locked and barred door to one side. Nor was it unguarded. One more maid robot stood there, clearly waiting for her. Somehow, Arika knew that this was not one of the drones. "Chachamaru-san, I presume," she said. She didn't banish the blades just yet, but she was wiling to try sweet reason first.

"Indeed, Arika-sama. I am pleased to finally meet Negi-sensei's mother, though I regret that it occurs under these conditions," the robot said, and there was a distinct timbre to her voice that was utterly absent in those she'd fought. "My orders from my mistress are to prevent you from entering into this room."

"I see. And do you intend to follow those orders?"

Chachamaru looked away. "I am torn," she said quietly. "On the one hand, I truly believe that the mistress deserves my unquestioning support. On the other hand, I know that Negi-sensei would not approve of this, and as he is my teacher, my partner and one of the dearest people to me, I do not want him to have cause to be ashamed of me."

"That is what it is to have divided loyalties," Arika agreed. "I can well imagine how I would feel if I were to be faced with a choice between my loyalty to my husband and my loyalty to my children. You have my sympathies. But you must make a choice."

"That is so. I can choose to betray one of those whom I owe loyalty ... or I can choose to do nothing, and by inaction betray them both," Chachamaru mused aloud. "Either way, I damage my self-esteem. I do not like this."

"I can tell you comforting lies about forgiveness, if you'd like?" Arika offered.

"No. I think I know that which I must do. I will obey another loyalty altogether," Chachamaru said, shaking her head once. Then she turned and lifted the bar holding the door closed out of its holders, set it against the wall, and stepped back. "I will remain, and face the consequences of my actions," she added.

"I see," said Arika, who didn't, and wondered what on Earth the creature was talking about. But she went over to open the doors nonetheless.

And coughed as she watched two of the girls getting dressed quickly. "Chisame-san and Ayaka-san, correct?" she said. "Where's -"

"Chizuru was hurt attempting to save us, I believe that she has a broken wrist," Ayaka interrupted, pulling on her shirt and standing up. "She passed out from the pain a while ago. Can you help her?"

"I am not a healer, and no potion I have will cure a broken limb," Arika replied grimly, impressed despite herself by the girl's cool head. It reminded her of her own. "I do have one that will act as an analgesic and bring her around. Then I will have to carry her -"

" _I_ will carry her," Ayaka interrupted again, her face stern and set. "She has carried me often enough."

Arika smiled. For the first time, she wondered what it would be like to take one of Nagi's other children as a lover. The one time she'd met one before this, when they'd been living with Nekane, the girl had not been in the right frame of mind to accept her attentions. (And of course, there had been no way of being sure that she was Nagi's daughter. She could simply be his neice, despite his cuckolding of his brother.) It would be interesting, she thought. "As you wish," she said aloud.

She brought the potion, which was one of those which worked through scent, up to Chizuru's nose. The girl came awake slowly, and looked up blearily. "A rescue, au secours," she said, wearily.

"Indeed so. Chisame-san, are you ready to depart from this cheerless place?" Arika asked as Ayaka began lifting her friend into the fireman's carry.

"Yeah, I guess," the girl in glasses and a bikini muttered, not looking at her.

"Is there something you'd like to ask?" Arika replied, just a little sharply.

The girl hesitated, then looked at her angrily. "You know who I am. You know who we are. Why are -"

"Because you are who you are," she answered the question before it was asked. "You are my son's students, and more than that, you are his friends and companions. And, yes, you two are the children of my beloved. That makes you dear to me, as well. Especially you, who are so much like him," she added.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Chisame cried, eyes wide. "I'm nothing like -" She waved a hand wildly.

"I have no time to explain this now, Chisame-san," Arika answered, shaking her head. "We have to leave now, before Evangeline is able to escape from her own trap. And you are the only one who can get us out of here. I have been here only a few hours, Ayaka-san and Chizuru-san somewhat longer. You're the only one who can open the teleporter to escape from here. Now come on."

They went out of the cell, to find Chachamaru still standing there looking at them ... correction, looking at Chisame. The robot seemed about to say something, but Chisame looked away furiously, and whatever might have been said went unsaid. But Arika finally understood what other loyalty the robot had spoken of, and finally felt a bit of genuine pity for her.

But only a bit.

They raced through the castle halls, finally emerging on the bridge that led out above the waters. "Be careful, I cannot fly, if you fall, I cannot rescue you," Arika warned them. "Everyone hold hands with Chisame-san." _That should not be a problem for Ayaka, given that they had clearly been past that point by the time she entered the room,_ she thought slyly.

And just as Evangeline burst from the door leading into her resort, screaming curses ... the teleportal opened, depositing them in the basement of her cabin. Chizuru let out a sigh of relief as they landed.

"No time for that," Arika snapped. "She could follow at any time. Up, up and out." But within her heart, she was exultant. She'd beaten her. She'd beaten the witch.

* * *

On the bridge leading up, Evangeline looked up at the false sky ... and smiled. "I win," she said.

**Next:** Madoka


	20. Madoka

"Okay, this is going to be easy," Madoka calmly asserted. "We're probably just going to kiss, that's all. Some kissing, and a few gentle caresses, and maybe things will go a little further. Or not. Probably we won't even take our clothes off. Or maybe just with bras and panties on. Or, y'know, nudity, could happen. I mean it's not like either of us has anything the other has never seen. No big deal. I'm cool with it, however it turns out. The point is, there's no pressure, and we're gonna have a good time."

"Yeah, I'm really looking forward to watching you do it with Ako," Sakurako agreed from where she was sitting on the edge of the bed watching Madoka talk to the ceilling.

"You're not going to watch!" Madoka snapped, sitting bolt upright. "I gave you both a week's worth of meal tickets to go to Tomobiki Marchenland instead of hanging around here all day, so you're going to go!"

"Awww," Sakurako pouted. "And after I've been cheering you on from the sidelines all this while, too."

"It's not that I'm not grateful," Madoka bit out. "I just want a little bit of privacy for this. I think that's reasonable."

"Well, yeah, I guess that's reasonable. But I've just been hoping that you were finally going to make a move, and I'm happy that you've finally gotten up the courage to admit what we all knew."

Madoka felt her eyebrows twitching. "You all knew," she repeated. "And what, exactly, did you all know?"

"That you like Ako-chan, silly," Sakurako replied.

"Yes, exactly. I like Ako-chan. And it has nothing to do with either of us being a girl. If she were a guy, I would like her just the same."

"Right," Sakurako agreed, smiling and nodding. Inside she was having hysterics at the idea of Ako as a boy. Frankly, the sort of boy who was anything like Ako wouldn't do a thing for her. "And the same if you were a guy and she was a girl."

"Which is easier to imagine," Misa noted as she went over her makeup one more time, and dodged the thrown pillow.

"Shut up, will you?" Madoka shouted. "Quit it with the tomboy remarks! You've probably been with more women than I have!"

"Since you still haven't sealed the deal with Ako-chan, and I've had four three-parts total, there's no probably about it," Misa said, arising from her chair in front of the mirror and picking up her shoulder bag. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I am off to Tomobiki Marchenland, because I am a good girl who honors her commitments even with people who throw pillows at me, and also because I made a date with a guy who is going to give me many more presents. I gave you the dental dam, right?" she asked Madoka.

"Yes, you gave me the dental dam," her room-mate growled.

"Good!" She made a series of complicated hand gestures. "Orum's blessing be on your union, even though you can't have children and so don't really need it. See you later." She walked out of the dorm room, humming cheerfully.

"God, I can't wait for high school," Madoka said, collapsing onto her back. "We'll finally be in different classes, probably, and maybe even different dorm rooms. It's gonna be heaven."

Sakurako blinked. "That doesn't seem too heavenly to me," she said, clearly sounding hurt.

"Oh, come on, you know what I mean," Madoka sighed. "We go to class together, we go to practice together, we live together, we spend most of our weekends together. You guys are the last things I see before I go to sleep at night, and the first things I see every morning. A change will do us all good."

Sakurako blinked some more, clearly not getting it.

"Shouldn't you get going too?" Madoka said.

"Well, you see, I gave it a lot of thought, and, to support your love, I've decided not to go to Tomobiki Marchenland. I'm going to hang around campus, instead."

Madoka slowly sat up. "You can support my love anywhere. Why do you want to hang around?"

"No reason," Sakurako said innocently, eyes glancing briefly at the room's window.

Madoka noticed the glance, looked at the window, and for the first time truly noticed the tree growing just outside it, with its nice strong limbs. She frowned. "I'm closing the blinds," she bit out.

"Aw come on!" Sakurako protested.

"What the hell, Saku!" Madoka shouted.

"I, I just want ... you seem happy, really, and, well, I want to see you happy. I figure that being with Ako is going to make you really happy, and I like seeing you happy." Sakurako looked down. "I'd like to _make_ you happy, but all I do lately is piss you off," she added, flushing.

"Oh, geez. Sakurako, c'mere."

She emphasized the words with a gentle beckoning gesture, and the girl with the bleached hair slowly got up and came over to sit beside her. Madoka hugged her tightly. Startled, Sakurako just sat there for a moment before reaching up to embrace her friend back.

"You make me happy," Madoka said. "Yes, you piss me off, sometimes. Yes, I'd like a change from being with you twenty-four seven. But I do like you, and I never ever want to not see you again. Okay?"

Sakurako apparently gave the words some thought, and then asked, quietly, "Can I kiss you?"

Madoka sighed. "Yes, you can kiss me, it's just a friendly way of showing -"

Then Sakurako kissed her and so she couldn't say anything for a while. Sakurako was a really good kisser, apparently.. And eventually she felt clothing being removed, and part of her mind said, _Wait, hold it, we're forgetting something._

_Eh, it's probably not that important._

* * *

"So out of academic curiousity, what's it like? Sex with our adorable little teacher, I mean?"

Asuna stared at Mana as they crouched in the forest at the rendezvous point they'd set up earlier. Negi and Rakan were a little distance away, discussing what they both knew about vampires, their strengths and weaknesses. Well, from the sound of it, Rakan was actually telling moderately ero stories about vampires, enjoying the freedom of being able to talk about stuff like that with a less innocent Negi.

"How ... no, I don't really want to know how you knew, do I?" she asked.

"It'd probably disturb you," Mana agreed.

"It's great. It's wonderful. No one I've ever been with has made me feel like he does," Asuna admitted. "I think I honestly love him. Maybe that's why ... and why even the fact that I know I _should_ be grossed out doing stuff with my brother, it doesn't bother me. I'm ... still a little shaky about the idea of doing stuff with my mother, but ... you knew about that part of all this, right?" she asked abruptly.

"I've known you were the Twilight Princess since about the first time I set eyes on you," Mana admitted. "So, yeah. I know."

"And, you know, the incest doesn't -"

"Asuna, I had 108 half-sisters, most of whom didn't like men and none of whom had any interest in what most people think of as moral behavior, and they'd all achieved sexual maturity by the time they were six human years old and thought I was the same way. Guess what my home life was like?"

Asuna gagged. "Oh. Oh, Mana-san, that's, that's ... didn't your mother do anything?"

"She died when I was four, my oldest sister took her place as Queen, and two years later ... eh, stop it, Kagarazuka, it wasn't as bad as it sounds," Mana said with a shrug. "I just got sick of it after a while, so I ran away from home when I was eight and ended up here on Earth, in Roanapur. Maybe I'll tell you about all of that some day. But anyway, I guess you could say that nothing your mother does sounds so terrible by comparison. Besides, she's probably just following the mysteries of Aphrodite and Eros."

Shaking her head to clear it of the rather gruesome images, Asuna tried to remember what she'd learned about Greek mythology. "I don't know what that means," she admitted.

"Well, the people who founded Ostia were from the Roman Empire, and they brought the Greek and Roman myths with them. Also some early Christianity, but that's not important right now. Anyway, when the ancients wanted to have a personal communion with the divine, they turned to mystery cults who taught their adherents deep, personal secrets that weren't really all that impressive but were steeped in so much ritual that ... well, that's not important right now, either," Mana digressed, seeing Asuna starting to boggle.

"Anyway, the mysteries of Aphrodite and Eros, the parts of it that are known even to unbelievers like me, tell this story. In the beginning, Zeus, Almighty Power, arose, threw down his father and claimed his mother, Rhea, Bounty, as a concubine, and his sister, Hera, Family, as a wife. From his wife were born Hephaestus, Craft, and Ares, War, but from his concubine were born Athena, Wisdom, and Aphrodite, Love. And Love's truth is all that matters."

Asuna blinked, recognizing that expression.

"Aphrodite went unto Zeus her father and brother, and they became one, and from their union was born Eros, Passion. And Aphrodite went unto Eros her son and brother, and they became one, and yet nothing was born of their union. And so Eros sought another bride, and found her in Psyche, the Soul, and brought her unto his mother. And after some time and testing of their bond, she sanctified their union. And from their union were born all true lovers. And Love's truth is all that matters." Mana ended the recital, and shrugged. "It's a pretty screwy myth. I can see why it didn't survive here on Earth."

Asuna nodded, not really hearing. The recital had brought back some vague memories of her lessons. "What about the other gods, like Apollo, and ... the others?"

Mana shook her head. "They don't come into this story. Most mystery cult myths are pretty tightly focused."

Meanwhile, Negi was growing a little frustrated. "So they don't have any real weaknesses?"

"Hey, you've been palling around with the scary little girl for a while now. Have you seen any weaknesses?" Rakan laughed. "Didn't think so. Well, mmm, there's one thing I heard about but never had the chance to check when I was fighting Shinso. Supposedly, there's this spot on their neck that's really sensitive, and if you strike it, they'll have to bite down on whatever's in front of them. Problem being, it's so small that the only way to hit it is by getting in really close, close enough that what they're gonna bite down on is you. If you can take that, they're basically helpless while they're feeding on you. Of course, most people _can't_ take that, and so most people who try that just end up as half-vampire slaves."

Negi blinked. "I'm an idiot," he announced. Speaking up, he cried out, "Asuna, I'm an idiot."

"I've often thought so," Asuna agreed, standing up and running over to him. "What? What's wrong?"

"I know what Master's planning," he said, fumbling with his pactio cards. "I know how to stop it, too. But we have to hurry!" He pulled out Konoka's card. "Konoka-san!" he called out.

No response.

"She must not have the card with her right now," Negi groaned. "We've got to find her, but -"

"Might this one be of assistance?" Kaede asked gently from where she was standing behind him.

"Gyah!" said Negi and Asuna in stereo.

"Hey, you snuck up on me!" Rakan said, intrigued. "Cool! How'd you do that?"

"Nin-nin," Kaede hummed.

"You didn't sneak up on me," Mana said irritably. "I was aware of your presence for quite some time before you declared yourself."

Kaede's grin took on just a bit of an edge as she looked at her rival. "You may believe so if you wish, Mana," she said, omitting the usual -dono. Her stance slowly shifted to one of readiness for battle. Mana, of course, was already there.

"Not now, please," Negi begged. "Kaede-san, can you please go and find Konoka-san and bring her here? And Setsuna-san, too, please, if they're together. It's very important!"

"One hopes for their sake that they are," Kaede agreed. "Very well, since there's no one near whom you could possibly entrust with such a crucial task and hope to have it succeed, this unworthy one will make the attempt." She bounded off into the trees.

"I'm going to shoot her one of these days," Mana said darkly.

"Oh, so that's your type," Rakan guessed. "I was wondering, y'know, and -"

"She is not my girlfriend!"

"... didn't say that she was, actually. Kinda telling, don't you think?"

* * *

_How did this happen? Okay, no, I know how this happened, but ... aw, jeez. No, no, don't panic, Madoka. Saku's a sweet girl. She'll understand why this was just one of those things, and why you want to be faithful to the girl you just cheated on and have never actually done anything with._

Madoka pulled on her shirt and pretended that made sense. She picked up her phone and dialed Ako's number. "Hey, Ako?" she said softly. "Yeah. Listen, there's a problem. Saku's come down with something, and she's on enforced bed rest. Yeah, we can't. But, listen, maybe we should take it one step at a time, have a date first, and then ... Chao Bao Zi? Well, sure. Yeah. See you there in about an hour."

She got up, pulled her jeans up from where they were around her ankles, picked up her wallet and headed out the door, with one last regretful look at where Sakurako was gently sleeping with a goofy grin on her face. Then she went out the door.

Sakurako's eye slid open and her goofy grin vanished. "Sick, am I?" she said irritably. She snatched up her own phone. "I'll show you sick. Okay, that didn't make any sense, but whatever." She considered who she should call - Makie, Yuna or Akira. One of them was bound to have a crush on Ako, whether realized or unrealized, so it was just a matter of picking that one out.

1 in 3 chance of getting it right. Piece of cake!

She dialed Akira. "Hey, Akira? It's Sakurako. Listen, I just met Ako, coming from soccer practice this morning ... yeah, she forgot her cell phone, and so she couldn't tell you that she wanted to meet you at Chao Bao Zi. Is it a date?" She blinked. "It is? Wow, cool. No, I, I'm happy for you. Anyway, enjoy your date."

She hung up, and stared at the phone for a moment.

"Wow," she said. "Is this shame? I don't like it." She got up and started getting dressed in a hurry. With a little luck, she'd be able to fix this. Good thing she had a lot of luck.

* * *

Akira was a simple girl, and her passion was swimming. Neither of these characteristics was conducive to being all that familiar with the application of make-up, so she was pretty hesitant about it. She didn't want give the impression to Ako that she didn't care about looking good for her, but she also didn't want to look like ... well, her only referent for what she didn't want to look like was Misa, really, but if she was being totally honest, that's what she did want to look like.

Eventually, she was satisfied, looking neither like a readily available tart nor like someone who didn't care how they looked. She pulled on her best pair of pants, the bustier that showed off more of her cleavage than she was really comfortable with, and a jacket to cover her shoulders, and set out.

As Akira headed briskly out the door, she was startled to see Yuna coming up the walk to the dorm. The other girl blinked in surprise. "Akira-chan? What are you doing here? And why did you leave -"

"W-What? This is my home too!" Akira interrupted her, nervous all of a sudden. "What are you doing here? You were supposed to be in Amsterdam with your dad!"

"Amsterdam?" The girl blinked. "Where did you get that -"

Akira looked at her wristwatch and gasped. She'd spent far more time doing her make-up than she'd realized! "L-Look, we'll talk later, okay, Yuna? I'm in a hurry, sorry! Oh, Ako will be so hurt if I'm late for our first date!" she added, sotto voce, as she swept past the confused looking gunslinger.

She could be pretty fast when she wanted to be. This was true whether the medium was water or land and air. And so, she arrived very shortly at the Chao Bao Zi, to see Ako sitting, smiling and chatting with Madoka. What a relief! She hadn't been lonely while waiting, she'd had a good friend like Madoka with her.

Wasting no more time, Akira walked up to the table where the two of them were sitting, and set herself down beside Ako. "Hi," she said, trying to wring every last drop of apology out of her tone. "I am so sorry, I didn't realize how long it would take to get ... well, never mind, I'm here now."

"Akira?" Ako asked, eyes wide.

"Hey, Akira," Madoka said, blinking. "What's happening?"

"Thank you, Madoka, you're a good friend to Ako," Akira replied. "I hope we haven't kept you from anything important while waiting for the start of our -"

"TAAA-DAAA!" proclaimed Sakurako, completely drowning out Akira's next word as she bounced up out of nowhere to sit beside Madoka. "Full recovery complete! How're you all doing? I hope my good health continues!"

"Saku?" asked Ako, eyes still wide. "But Madoka said you were on enforced bedrest."

"Eh? Why would you say that? She sounded fine when she called me a little while ago," Akira said, blinking.

"When she did what now?" asked Madoka quietly. Very quietly.

"Oh, Ako-chan, you shouldn't worry so much about things that Madoka says," Sakurako reassured her with a laugh that was not really very reassuring. "She says crazy things sometimes. Why I bet any second now, she's going to say something -"

"I'm going to _kill_ you," Madoka bit out, eyes blazing with fury.

"See what I mean?" Sakurako spread her hands in the universal gesture for 'what am I supposed to with my crazy friends.'

Satsuki walked past, her usual look of serene contentment lacking something as she brusquely reminded everyone about the Chao Bao Zi's zero tolerance policy on fights.

Sakurako sat there with her look of blissful barely concealed panic. Madoka sat there with her look of ill-hidden fury. Akira sat there with her look of completely obvious confusion.

And true to form, five seconds into this awkward silence, the pressure became completely unbearable. "AAAAGH!" Ako cried, standing bolt upright. "I can't take it! I'm a wicked, wicked, wicked, wicked woman!" She ran off, sobbing horribly.

"Ako!" Madoka and Akira chorused, getting to their feet.

"Hey, I've got a great idea!" said Sakurako. "Why not, instead of the two of you running off after her, you both sit here and ... discuss your common interests while I do it? Kthxbye!" And somehow, without getting up, she dashed off in pursuit of Ako before either of the other two could do anything.

After a moment, Madoka and Akira both sat down, with both of them now looking as confused as Akira had earlier. "Our ... common interests," said Akira. "Well ... do you like swimming?"

"No, I'd really rather lie on the beach and tan," Madoka replied, shaking her head. "I'm really sorry, Akira, I don't know what Sakurako was thinking, trying to drag you into ruining my date with Ako."

Akira blinked. "Your date with Ako," she repeated.

Madoka was blind to the subtext of that comment. "I suppose that it's really my fault, though. Maybe I should have ... oh, who knows what I should have done ..."

"I think we have another commmon interest," Akira said weakly.

* * *

Ayaka believed that she was in good shape. She maintained a careful regimen of exercise and diet, and practiced martial arts not merely as exercise, but as one who knew that one day she might have to fight for her life. But she was not in nearly good enough shape to carry a girl who weighed as much as she did on her back, and run at the pace that Arika was setting. However, since her only other option was to admit that she couldn't do it, she had no choice but to do it. So she did.

Chisame didn't even bother trying to keep up with those Arika and Ayaka. Maniacs, both of them. Okay, what with one thing and another, she was probably in the best shape of her life, but that wasn't really saying much. Physical exertion was not even close to being Chisame's thing. Which proved that she was nothing like crazy kung fu fighting wizard Nagi, she thought. What the hell had that loopy woman been talking about?

A moment later, they came to a clearing where Negi and Asuna ( _Of course_ , thought Chisame grimly) along with Konoka and Setsuna, as well as Kaede and Mana, on opposite sides of the clearing, and with them was also -

"What the hell are you doing here?" Chisame shouted at Rakan.

"Helping save your bacon, Glasses Girl! How's it going, you sweet little sexy thing?"

Chisame absently punched him, and he pretended to feel it.

"Oh, thank goodness, Iincho, Chisame-san, Chizuru-sa - Oh no!" Negi said as he saw the astronomer's injury.

"Good thinking, having Konoka-chan here to heal our injuries," Arika said, through gasps of effort from the running.

"Actually, I can't do anything about this, it's been too long," Konoka said sadly. "I can keep up the analgesic, though, while we take you to the hospital, Chizuru-san."

"That's better than I should expect," Chizuru said, smiling faintly. "Thank you, all of you."

"It's nothing, really," Negi replied. " **Now.** "

Konoka turned and slapped a shinto-style ward to Chisame's forehead and spoke a single syllable of occult power.

_In Evangeline's resort, several subjective hours after declaring her victory, Evangeline sensed her plan's defeat. "He did it," she said, more stunned than angry. "He actually out-thought me. Well-done, boya."_

_"I still win."_

"What. The hell. Was that," Chisame asked from behind the ward, her voice clipped and angry.

"I'm sorry, Chisame-san, but Rakan-san reminded me of how a Shinso like Master can turn people whose blood she's sucked into half-vampire slaves, as she did to Makie-san and then the others. Did she suck your blood, Chisame-san?"

Behind the ward, Chisame was blushing. "You shouldn't be asking questions like that at your age!"

Negi found that answer utterly baffling, but pressed on. "I'll take that as a yes. So since tonight is a full moon night, she would have been able to turn you into a half-vampire, and use you to hurt people around you. If we'd followed our original plan and kept you surrounded, you would have been forced to hurt your friends." (Here Chisame let out a snort. Negi took this as a sign of her deep sorrow at the idea.) "Fortunately, Konoka-san knew an incantation which should break the link between you. We think," he added.

"You think?" Chisame asked.

"Hell, Hades and Acheron," Arika cursed. "Why didn't I think of this?"

"You don't know Master like I do, ma'am," Negi replied apologetically. "She's taught me how to think like she does." Now he sighed. "The problem is, we're no closer to being able to intercept Nodoka-san from using whatever hidden gate Master told her about. So she's succeeded in distracting us, if that was her aim. I just hope Chamo-kun can find it in time!"

"I repeat - _you think?_ "

* * *

Elsewhere, Sakurako had finally caught up to Ako, who was seated on a park bench with her face in her hands. She looked utterly miserable, and Sakurako felt like a world class heel. She coughed loudly as she walked up to Ako. "Um, look, Ako-ch-"

"I'm sorry, Sakurako," Ako wailed. "I'm sure all of this is somehow my fault for being such a horrible, slutty person. I'm turning into Misa!"

With rare discernment, Sakurako realized that reassuring Ako that this was not the case, that she was nowhere nearly that hot, would not help matters. "Okay, but, is that really so bad?" she asked instead.

"Is that so bad?" Ako repeated, lifting her head for the first time to reveal bloodshot eyes. "I'm leading on Tosaka-san, I have a crush on Negi-sensei, and I'm two-timing Akira and Madoka. I'm terrible!"

"Okay, first of all, that first one that you mentioned - Ako, you're fifteen years old! You're way too young to be thinking about marriage and stuff like that! Embrace your youth! And as for the third part, well, y'know, Madoka's two-timing you. I should know, I'm the other time." She nodded sadly. "Yeah. And with Negi-sensei, well, that's just human, you know? I mean, I'd love to marry Negi-sensei, and become his princess, and take Madoka as a lover-slash-bodyguard, and appoint Misa as Minister of Hoochiness, and maybe have a harem of ..." Sakurako trailed off as she considered all of this.

At that moment, an ermine, carrying two small suitcases in either paw, wearing a hat and smoking a cigarette, ran past them. He paused long enough to tip his hat, and then was gone.

"What do you mean, you're the other time?" Ako asked, focusing on the more immediate question before her.

"Oh," said Sakurako. "Well, I was kinda turned on at the thought of you two getting it on, so I got her to do it with me, and then she was trying to sneak out on me, and I got jealous, and so ... well, anyway, I did some bad things. I'm really sorry." There, that should make it all better.

"Oh, god, I'm not only a slut, I'm a contagious slut!" Ako sobbed, dropping her head again.

"Hey, stop that! You're making this more than it is! It's just sex! It's not such a big deal! You're making it out to be the be-all, end-all of human existence, and it's not." She dropped down onto the bench beside Ako, grabbed hold of her shoulders and pulled her up out of her fetal position. "It's not supposed to make you feel like this! It's supposed to make you feel good! It's supposed to be fun, Ako!"

She held Ako while the other girl's tears ran their course, and just a little while longer.

* * *

"So you and Ako -" said Madoka.

"Yes. Since a few days ago," Akira replied heavily.

"Damn. I ... thought she was talking about me, but I guess it was you."

"Or not," Akira said, getting up. "She chose to come here, to you. I ... think I'll respect that choice. Please make her happy, Madoka."

Madoka stared at her as she prepared to go. "Oh, for f-"

Satsuki was standing behind her, quietly reminding her not to use bad language.

"Akira, come on! 'I want my beloved to be happy'? Do you really want to live that particular cliche? Give me a break!" She stood up. "If you've got to live a love triangle cliche, live one of the cool ones, please! Don't say, 'make her happy', say, 'I won't lose to you!'"

"But -"

"She's _worth_ fighting for, isn't she?" Madoka yelled.

And then Akira's brows came together, and her hands clenched into fists, and with a voice as big as the sea, she proclaimed, " _I will **never** lose her to you!_ "

Madoka stared, more than a bit cowed, and murmured, "Damn."

Satsuki coughed, and with a gesture that required no words, pointed them towards the exit.

* * *

They were passionately kissing as they stumbled through the door, and clothes dropped from their bodies as they made their way to the bed. There was a squeak of terror when they discovered that it was already occupied ... by the other two.

"Small world, huh?" said one voice.

Things became somewhat confusing thereafter.

* * *

With a weary smile on her face, and her hair in slight disarray, Akira wandered back up the stairs in her dorm, quite a bit later. That had not been what she had been expecting, but it hadn't been bad. Definitely not an innocent anymore, though. Ah well. Maybe she should talk about that with -

And then she was in her bedroom, dressed in just her bra and panties, and wondering how she'd gotten there. She must be a lot more tired than she realized. She considered talking to Yuna, but then remembered that her roommate was still in Amsterdam with her dad. (Why had she thought otherwise? Must be really tired.) And with a sigh, she climbed into bed and went right to sleep.

Every dream was about Yuna, for some reason.

**Next:** Zazie.


	21. Side-Story -- Yuna Redux

Yuna lay back, sighing with pleasure. "That was so great," she said. "You're amazing."

"Thank you," said the hooker, who'd agreed to be called Yuka for the evening. She didn't really look much like Yuna's mom, but she was Japanese, even if her accent pretty clearly indicated that she was from the Netherlands originally. She'd had no problem playing along with their strange little game, having done far stranger things in her life in the sex trade.

"No, no, thank you, I ..." A sudden twinge crossed Yuna's face. "Uh, I mean, you were really ... uh. **Uh.** "

"Yuna? Is something wrong?" her father asked, looking up from where he was lying on the other side of her.

"I, I dunno, I think I ... uh ... bathroom," she stammmered, sitting up, crawling over him and stumbling off of the bed to dash across their hotel room to the en suite. Moments later, vomiting sounds came from the doorway.

"What in the world -?"

"It's probably the drugs," 'Yuka' said carelessly, counting the money she'd been careful to get before any sex acts had occurred. "They could be having weird reactions with whatever's already in her system."

Professor Akashi blinked, then grabbed the woman by the shoulders and yelled straight into her face. "What the hell are you talking about? Why did you give my daughter drugs?!"

"Hey, back off!" she snapped. "I figured you must already have her on some sort of dope to get her do stuff with you, but I didn't know whether your stuff left her like some kind of doll. Who wants that? So I slipped her some uppers."

Akashi stared at her, his mouth working silently. He got up off the bed, grabbed the clothes she'd been wearing when they came in together and shoved them into her hands. "Get out," he said. "Get out, and count yourself lucky that I don't call the police about this!"

She sneered as she stood. "Yeah, there's a threat, coming from child molesting daddy and all. Gouchisousama," 'Yuka' said sarcastically as she walked to and out the door he was holding for her. Akashi slammed the door shut and promptly headed to the bathroom.

Yuna was on her knees in front of the toilet, head hanging above the bowl, with a few flecks of vomit still clinging to her lips. He picked up a towel and started dabbing at them, gently. "You heard?" he said.

"Yeah," she replied dully. "Guess we picked the wrong Japanese-looking hooker, huh?"

"I'm so sorry, Yuka," her father began.

""s not your fault," she said. "Was my idea. I thought ... I guess, I thought it'd be like having Mom around again. But it wasn't, was it." She turned to look at him, eyes brimming with tears. "Do you think she'd hate us, if she knew what we were doing?"

He immediately hugged her. "I think she does know what we're doing," he said. "And I don't think she could ever hate you, no matter what you did."

"But -"

"I don't think she'd be happy about it," he continued, speaking over her objection. "I know that she ... was every bit as, well, advanced for her age as you were, when she was a girl, and that she wanted you to have a better life than she did, and I think that means she'd want you to have been innocent longer. But, just she'd want to be here for you, you can't always get what you want."

Yuna was silent, sobbing put on hold for the moment. "Will you hold me, please?" she asked. "Just ... hold me, for a while."

"As long as you want," her father said, kissing her brow.

_I have to find a way to end this,_ he thought. His late wife would have forgiven their daughter anything ... but not him. And he wasn't sure if he could forgive himself, either ...


	22. Zazie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is primarily the work of OverMaster.

Haruna finished putting the last few touches on the sketch and sighed while putting her drawing utensils down. She reached over for a piece of cloth, wiping the sweat off her forehead. "It's done, Patty-chan! You can get dressed now."

The blond short haired Patricia Martin let her 'tragic heroine' pose go and breathed out very deeply, smiling with satisfaction. "You sure took long enough this time, Haruna-sempai!" she said in her high pitched, American accented voice. "What's wrong? You're normally faster than that."

Haruna shrugged. "I suppose I just haven't been at the top of my game lately. I'm sure I'll get back in the swing of things soon."

"I tell you, all that time slacking in your vacation hurt your output," Patty said, reaching for her clothes and starting to pull them on.

"Haruna-sempai!" The short and bespectacled Tamura Hiyori entered the room with a tall pile of reference material in her hands. "I overheard you were done?"

Haruna nodded. "Yep, all there's left is the inking, and Hikaru-sempai will take care of it."

"Good!" Hiyori put it all down on a table. "Now we finally can move on to that Sasuke-Itachi doujin, right?"

Haruna paused. It had slipped her mind completely. That incest doujin...

_Incest._

The taller mangaka shook her head. "Sorry, Hiyori-chan. I won't be doing that one. You can pull a solo on it if you want, but truth be told, I don't want to do any incest projects for a while."

Her two clubmates were astounded. "Ehhhh? Why's that?" Patty whined.

"You were looking forward to that project so much!" Hiyori added.

"Sorry. I just can't do it, " Saotome shook her head. "I... I recently saw a... movie on the subject that turned me off all that. I'm still doing boy-on-boy, and girl-on-girl, and even futa, but no incest, sorry."

"You said 'sorry'!" Patty's eyes widened. "But being Paru-sama means never having to say you're sorry!"

"Haruna-sempai, are you feeling okay?" Hiyori worried. "You're Saotome Haruna! You fall asleep watching Saw! You say _Caligula_ is a Saturday popcorn flick! You said _The Devil in Miss JonesPokephilia_! No movie can disturb you!"

"This one did. It was ... truly sick stuff," Haruna grumbled, pulling her coat on.

Her two assistants looked on dumbly, wondering what kind of monstrosity could do that to their beloved leader. "Haruna-sempai," Hiyori finally worked up the nerve to say.

"Yes?"

"Be honest with us. Has something ... bad happened in your family?" she asked bluntly.

Haruna facefaulted, then sprang back to her feet. "Of course not! Sheesh, Dad may have all the flaws in the world, but not that one!" _Ewwwww!_

"And ... your brother?" Patty hesitated.

"He'd never do such a thing," Haruna scoffed. "Geez, you two and your dirty minds. Who put all that garbage in your brains?"

They pointed swirly-tipped fingers at her without any hesitation. "You did!" they chorused.

"Before meeting you, I was a fan of Doraemon!" Hiyori said.

"I fainted when I caught a glimpse of pictures of nude boys!" Patty added.

Haruna had to laugh. It felt nice, doing it again. "Okay, good point! Sorry! But rest assured, no, my family, weird as it is, loves me too much for that."

They smiled, reassured. "Sorry for asking, Haruna-sempai," Hiyori apologized.

"Never mind. The way things are nowadays, I don't blame you," their sempai told them. "Well, see you tomorrow. I'm having dinner with Nodo-chan."

"Isn't a bit late for that, though?" the American exchange student looked at the watch on the wall.

"Yeah, you've been staying late a lot, lately, " Hiyori nodded. "What's with your duties at the Library Exploration Club?"

"That club ... isn't the same thing anymore, " Haruna almost looked downcast. "The fun's gone. Yuecchi's gone. Nodo-chan spends most of her time away, and Konoka ... has changed."

The two younger girls fell silent, unsure what to say.

"To be honest, I prefer spending my time with you guys, " Haruna confided. "Don't ever change, hear me? Let's be normal abnormal girls forever."

Patty placed a hand on her right shoulder. "We're Nakama, Haruna-chan." She spoke in English except for that one word, to emphasize it.

Nakama. Comrades. That word was overused so much. And yet, until recently, she'd been very sure she belonged to an iron-knit Nakama. Now she wasn't sure anymore.

She still smiled, rubbing Patty's hand friendly. "Thank you. Yes, we're Nakama."

"Ahem." A brief, soft cough came from the door.

"Oh." Haruna looked in that direction. "Nodo-chan! How long have you -"

"Since the 'The fun's gone' part," Nodoka quietly replied. Haruna remembered how stealthy she could be when she wanted. "I, I can't say I disagree," she confessed.

"Nodo-chan, I -"

"Let's go. I'm hungry." Nodoka calmly turned and began walking away.

"Y-Yeah. See ya, Hiyori-chan, Patty-chan." Haruna waved a goodbye.

"See you tomorrow!" both assistants waved back.

And then the librarians were gone.

Hiyori sighed sadly. "It's like watching the Titanic sink."

"Yeah," Patricia agreed in the same tone.

Hiyori grabbed her hand firmly. "Let's never go that way, okay?"

Patty smiled at her. "Okay!"

And their lips came together in a chaste - for now - kiss.

* * *

The Chao Bao Zi was unusually quiet that late afternoon, customers leaving early until only a few of them were left, far before the usual closing hours.

Then again, as Satsuki pondered from behind the counter, it looked like it was going to be another stormy night. She couldn't blame anyone for wanting to get back home as soon as possible.

Nodoka and Haruna sat at a corner eating in an uncomfortable silence. Every once in a while, Miyazaki would turn a quick glare at Evangeline, who sat relatively near with a bowl of ramen. Chachamaru, serving the last few remaining patrons, would catch these glimpses whenever they happened, and there seemed to be some sort of unspoken agreement between the three girls. As if they just were waiting for an order from the leading personality to enact a plan or something.

Ridiculous, Satsuki tried to tell herself.

Ku Fei, her waitress duties for the day over, sat near the counter grabbing a quick nap, her chin resting cutely on her chest. Hakase sat near her, running a few calculations on her laptop. Nothing, all in all, seemed to be particularly far out of the normal.

And yet, Satsuki could feel it in her soul. Her world had become a darker and sadder place in the last few weeks. And it was affecting almost everyone around her.

"- at least six dead in the explosion at the Mercy Hospital in Gotham City, seemingly engineered by the terrorist mastermind known only as the Joker." The TV set was broadcasting the international news. "This act is the latest in a series of seemingly random strikes against the city. Gotham's District Attorney Harvey Dent, grievously injured in a previous incident, is missing, pressumed dead - "

Zazie sat next to the door, slowly eating a bowl of spicy ramen, her face as enigmatic and expressionless as ever. She was one of the few who seemed completely unchanged, going back to her silent ways after her brief change of attitude during the demon invasion.

Konoka sat near her, eating alone for a change, which actually puzzled Yotsuba a lot. Ku had tried to strike up a casual chat with her a few times, but the healer had only smiled and told her she was feeling slightly ill, not in a talkative mood. Satsuki could tell she was lying, at least partially, even if Ku couldn't.

Finally, Evangeline stood up, paid and headed for the door. "Chachamaru," she said. "We're leaving."

"Yes, Master." The gynoid quickly bowed her goodbyes to Hakase and Satsuki and followed the tiny blonde.

As they passed by next to Zazie, however, a few soft words startled Evangeline. "The more you surround yourself with slaves, the lonelier you'll be."

That made Eva's skin actually crawl for a moment. With a short, barely audible hiss, she turned her suddenly black and red eyes to Zazie, snarling viciously. "What do you - "

Then she caught a glimpse of the claws popped from the fingers of Rainyday's left hand, even though the dark skinned acrobat's expression continued being exactly the same. Never cowed, but reminded of the need to keep a low public profile, McDowell turned to stomp out. "We'll settle this later."

Chachamaru gave Zazie a short, somewhat questioning gaze, then began walking out as well.

As she did, Zazie warned in the same whispered monotone. "She won't succeed. And even if she did, it wouldn't bring her happiness."

"I know." The gynoid left without looking back.

Satomi blinked, looking in their direction with a baffled face.

Nodoka coughed and stood up as well. "I, I suppose I'd better leave as well. I have important things to do. Haruna, I ... may not see you again for a while."

"Eh?" her remaining clubmate blurbed. "But, why - "

"I'll explain it later," Nodoka half-heartedly promised, rushing for the exit as much as she could without looking desperate.

Zazie's next few words, apparently aimed at no one, stopped her right on her tracks. "Two wrongs don't make a right."

Nodoka stopped dead and looked ashamed for a moment, before switching to an emotion Haruna hadn't ever seen her displaying before. Bitter contempt. "You know, Rainyday-san," she said, keeping a level glare on the performer, "your wise advice always comes too late. Maybe, if you ever bothered to share your infinite wisdom with us before -"

"Nodoka!" Haruna gasped.

Zazie looked up at Nodoka, with that eternal lazy calm of hers. "Would it make a difference? You have spurned those who were close to you, either way."

Nodoka recoiled as if Quintum's bolt had hit her again. But she recovered quickly. Without saying a word, she clenched her watering eyes and tried to run away.

"Nodoka!" Haruna repeated, reaching for her, grabbing her right wrist to hold her in place.

"Let me go, Haruna!" Nodoka yanked her hand free.

The mangaka stared at her with wide eyes. "Nodoka, what has -"

"You said it, Haruna," she said. "We aren't fun anymore. That's everything you always cared about, right? Fun. Playing roles, playing matchmaker. But when real life knocks at the door, bringing its real pain along, you don't even recognize it. You spent so long playing your damn games you aren't even of any help when - when - "

She stopped, holding a few sobs back. Satsuki finally moved in to help, vaguely wondering why hadn't she done it before. But Nodoka just brushed past her, sounding like the old Nodoka for only a moment. A shy, frail violet shrinking down under the withering weather. "I'm sorry, Haruna!" she cried as she fled.

The busty girl watched her go helplessly. "I'm sorry too, Nodoka,"

Konoka winced and left her seat as well. "Ahhh ... I'm sure she'll be okay!" she reassured mechanically, with a blatantly fake giggle that sounded as if she was shattering behind it. "She just needs ... some time alone ... like all of us do once in a while. See you tomorrow, everyone."

She eyed Zazie expectantly while walking next to her, but the performer did not speak a word, and neither did she look at her. Konoka seemed to hesitate before stopping at her side and smiling hesitantly at her. "Ne, Zazie-chan. Since you're so talkative today, why don't you give me some advice as well? Not like I need it, but -"

Zazie looked up and down at her, very slowly. "Why? You already know what to do. You just don't want to do it."

Konoka paled visibly, then straightened stiffly and walked out into the night without remembering to pay.

Hakase sighed and put it on Konoka's tab. "Are their cycles in synch or something?" she wondered aloud.

Haruna sat back down, burying her head in her hands. "How could we all be so clueless?"

Ku Fei yawned and stretched her arms up. "Ahhhh, I had the nicest dream!" She noticed the room's gloomy atmosphere and blinked. "Huh? Why all the long faces-aruyo?"

"We're falling apart at the seams," Haruna lamented. "How did this happen? We used to risk our lives for each other without hesitation, and now ... we barely can stand each other. It's as if everyone's ready to jump down each other's throats at the drop of a hat."

"That isn't true, " Ku Fei said. "We're still the same!"

"Maybe you!" Haruna argued. "And thank God for that! But no one else has been the same ever since we returned from Mundus Magicus, and you have to realize it, Ku-chan! Nodoka's become a bitter shadow of herself, Konoka's acting weirder than ever, Setsuna looks like she's on the border of an eternal nervous collapse, and Asuna ... oh, if only I told you about Asuna!"

The martial artist grew concerned. "What's up with Asuna-aru?"

Haruna looked aside. "Never mind. I promised her I'd keep her secret."

" _You're_ holding back on gossip?" Hakase asked. "Oh my. It seems that you have changed, too!"

Haruna's hair antennae drooped. "I guess you're right."

Ku slammed her hands on the table, making a fairly large crack in its surface. "Enough! Okay, maybe you're right! Maybe things haven't been the same! But we can work this out! We only need to talk it over."

"That won't happen. Not as long as that awful, domineering woman is around," Haruna snarked.

"Evangeline?" Hakase asked, frowning.

The mangaka actually sulked for a moment. "Well, yeah, her too. But mostly, I mean Negi's mother. It's all her fault. Her fault ... and Yue's faut."

"Now, see, that's the core of your issues," Satomi said. "You still can't let her go."

"She betrayed us," Haruna mumbled darkly. "Even after years of friendship, after all we went through together, after we swore we'd be inseparable friends forever ... she decided to stay with people she'd just met! And that's assuming she didn't just lie about not remembering everything, because I can see her doing that to 'alleviate the blow' and pull another crappy I-want-you-two-to-be-happy useless sacrifice on Nodoka and Negi. Never considering Nodoka's feelings! Never understanding she didn't want her gone! She broke Nodoka's heart for nothing but a selfish whim!"

"A selfish whim of the heart begets another," Zazie calmly observed from her corner.

Baka Yelow scratched her head. "Wait a minute. How's Negi's mom a bad woman now? And Eva-chan? She's done so much for us! She trained us - "

"Wake up, Ku!" Haruna told her. "Not a single thing she's done has been with our best interests in mind! At the end, it's all for her own benefit! We're nothing but expendable puppets for her! She'll never be our friend, and I was an idiot fooling myself by treating her like one!"

Hakase hummed. "It is true Evangeline-san is a difficult person to deal with, but - "

"The Mistress of Puppets." Haruna crossed her arms. "And I'll say it again, we're nothing but dolls to her. Well, count me out of that from now on. She doesn't want us in her resort? Fine, I'll never set a foot there for the rest of my life! Not even if she came bawling to me!"

Hakase couldn't help chuckling. "I don't really think that would happen in any event."

"Yeah, I know," the librarian muttered. "Still, it's nice to imagine it."

Hakase hummed thoughtfully. "I haven't noticed much of a difference, but then again, we never were that close. I thought I had observed something strange about Chachamaru's recent behavior patterns, however. She has been acting slower than usual lately, but her systems are working at full capacity. I had chalked it to a failure in the inner power core, and I was trying to locate it without success. I suppose it is possible there is a psychological reason behind it instead."

"Ah?" Ku Fei blinked.

"Chachamaru's depressed," Haruna summed up.

"Ah!" Ku said. "What if we throw her a party?"

Haruna sighed and rapped her knuckles on the martial artist's forehead. "Wise up, Pinkie Pie. It isn't as easy as that."

"Normally, you'd be all for the idea," Satomi pointed out.

"Nodoka said it herself, I messed up a lot of things before," Haruna mused, her Pactio artifact twirling between her fingers, doodling a scene of herself, Yue and Nodoka together, which hovered over them like a holographic image. She had been gaining greater control over its functions now she was practicing more seriously. She waved the quill, and the image dissolved in the air. "I meddled where I wasn't needed, and I didn't help my friends where it mattered. Even in battle, I never did as much as I could have. Now it's too late to make up for it."

"It's never too late!" Ku said firmly.

"Ku-san is right," Hakase opined. "What's so hard about making up? Granted, in Yue-san's case it can't be helped since she isn't here anymore, but ..."

Haruna gave her a jaded glare. "Since when do you know anything on human relationships?"

Hakase stared back, frowning. "The way you're all behaving lately, I'd say even I know more on the subject than you."

Haruna slumped her head in defeat. "Good point. Sorry about that, Prof-chan."

"No offense taken." The scientist shrugged, starting to gather her things. "Well, I have a few late experiments to run, so if you'll excuse me ..."

"Wait, Satomi-chan." Ku grabbed her by a sleeve, then pulled her along as she also motioned for the others to get close, scooping one after another in a tight group hug. "You too, Zazie, Satchan. We're friends, you hear me. All of us-aru! We only stop being friends when we decide to stop being so! I don't believe in dark vague forces of fate separating us! If there's a problem with us, then it lies in us! And we only can work it out by actually getting together instead of brooding on how unfair life is!"

"Ku-chan!" Haruna gasped. For such a Baka, she could display very high levels of insight at times. "You -"

And then realization struck. She smiled and patted her back. "You've been reading Chinese fortune cookies again, haven't you?"

"Well, can't help it! Who do you think writes the things?" Ku grinned.

The girls around her couldn't help but laughing. Even Zazie cracked a brief small smile.

"You're right, Ku-chan, " Haruna petted her head. "Thank you. We need you around to remind us of that."

They went their separate paths in a more spirited way after that, promising to get together again the next day to decide what to do next. Even Hakase had been convinced to skip a few hours at the lab to join in; it remained to be seen if the scatterbrained genius would actually remember it. But since it involved Chachamaru's well-being, Haruna was reasonably sure she'd come.

At the end, only Satsuki and Zazie remained there.

The cook asked Zazie whether she wanted anything else tonight.

She nodded. "Actually, I'd like to stay with you tonight."

That was a surprising request. Was she sure?

Another nod. "Mana won't be coming out tonight. I feel lonely."

Satsuki lowered her gaze. She understood how that could be. Ever since Chao had left, she had felt just as lonely, if not more. She still had an empty bunk left at home ...

Zazie bowed. "Thank you."

Satsuki smiled again, and suggested that they go. Then she reached over to grab Zazie's thin, cold hand in her small, chubby and warm one. Zazie, never being used to any sort of human touch, made a very brief jerking motion for a moment, but her expression softened as she walked out with Yotsuba.

It felt good. Very good.

* * *

The cook sighed as she left for the bathroom, cleaning herself, then washing her face and toweling it off carefully. She walked back into the bedroom, finding it shrouded by darkness already. Vaguely, she could make Zazie's prone figure on the bunk above, wrapped by blankets up to her neck, her back turned on her.

Somehow, it all made Satsuki a little sad. She knew she never should have expected any conversation from Rainyday-san, and yet, having her there only to be all but ignored by her only added to her recent discomfort.

Then again, it was not for her to pressure anyone into doing anything. The short plump girl simply breathed out and slid into her own bunk, pulling her blankets up and trying to close her eyes. But for some reason, she couldn't even do that. No matter how she relaxed, sleep wasn't coming to her.

She was satisfied with her lot in life. She was well loved and respected, and she loved and respected everyone around her in turn. She was well placed economically, and Chao had left her with her own small fortune on top of all that. Of course, then again, material belongings never mattered much for her. She was happy with just her restaurant and her friends, and the warm joy of making them happy.

But were they happy? It didn't look that way anymore.

And that, in turn, made her own happiness impossible.

She made a soft and vague sound and rolled around, burying her face into her pillow. The new position eased her to some degree, as she seemed to be slightly more sleepy now. Her eyelids went down, and a dreamlike state began to claim her.

But then something made her tense up, poking her right flank softly, but in a definitely noticeable way. The chef looked aside to see Zazie had just snuggled next to her, resting her chin on her back. And completely naked.

"I always sleep naked," the performer whispered.

Well, not like Yotsuba really objected to that, but still, she decided to politely ask why she'd snuck into her bed.

"I feel alone."

Oh, of course. That was why she was there in the first place, after all. She asked forgiveness for asking such a question.

Zazie nodded and absently wrapped her thin arms around Satsuki's wide midsection. Yotsuba tried to ignore the odd new sensations the contact of that tender naked skin brushing against her pajama tops was giving her, but once again, she couldn't close her eyes. She just couldn't.

After eternal moments of unnerving silence, the calmed voice spoke again.

"You feel alone too, don't you?"

Of course not. She had everyone's company and love, didn't she? She was happy with it, and everyone knew it.

"That's a lie," Zazie disagreed.

Yotsuba was normally too kind to vocally disagree with anyone, but then again, no one else had ever really disagreed with her before, either. So she felt like asking why.

"Your heart longs for more."

Satsuki shook her head. No, that couldn't be ...

Zazie placed a soft kiss on the back of her neck.

She uneasily asked Zazie not to do that.

"Okay." She withdrew her mouth, and Satsuki blinked at how easy it had been.

Well, fine. That was what she had wanted.

A few minutes of waking silence passed.

Finally, the cook turned around to look into those deep golden eyes. She fought the wetness quickly coming to her own eyes.

"You told me to stop."

Of course she had. Sex without love could never bring anything but pain. She should know. After that time ...

Zazie reached over and gently caressed her unbound dark hair.

"But I can love you like she couldn't. Not forever, maybe. But for now."

But ... why would she?

"I like your silence."

Well, yes, that might have that in common.

Zazie's expression remained the same as her hands unbuttoned Satsuki's top skillfully. She pulled it off her torso, then began to work on the brassiere, quickly freeing her plump pale breasts. The shorter girl shuddered barely making any sound. She never had known how to fight, and she wasn't going to start now.

Especially not now that Zazie had started to place feathery kisses all over her nipples and areolas even as her hands tugged Satsuki's pants down, the chef trying to help with clumsy motions of her wide hips. Soon the pants were tossed off the bed, and Zazie lowered her head down, yanking the white panties away with unusually sharp teeth, before holding Satsuki's short legs apart and diving her mouth into her womanhood, licking all over the sparse pubic hair, and then slinking her raspy hot tongue into her vaginal tunnel, elicting a long moan from the pale cook.

_Zazie-san ..._

"Not like that," she spoke, never stopping licking.

_Zazie-chan ..._

"Better."

Zazie started plunging her own fingers into herself as her mouth continued working on Satsuki, her breath coming in and out in short, muted and muffled pants. Satsuki ran her fingers through Zazie's white hair, directing her head's motions to her liking, the moans growing louder as they came outof her mouth. She had begun gringing her crotch into Zazie's face, enjoying it in earnest. It wasn't as good as cooking, but almost. Almost.

It was a different kind of love. And she liked it.

* * *

The next day, Haruna, Hakase and Ku Fei stood before the closed doors of the Chao Bao Zi.

"Will Open Tomorrow," Ku read the somewhat hastily written note pinned on the door. "Well, this is a first. You think she's feeling ill? She looked kinda ... sad yesterday."

"If she says she's opening tomorrow, she's opening tomorrow," Hakase shrugged, motioning for the others to follow. "Come with me; the Research Institute's cafeteria is not that bad. We can discuss Saotome-san's intended topics there ..."

Meanwhile, behind the counter, naked and lean dark skin humped naked and plump white skin over and over again, both bodies slick with sweat.

Satsuki moaned in ecstasy again.

Both of them were, actually, were getting more vocal now.

 **Next:** Tsukuyomi.


	23. Tsukuyomi

"So let me see if I have an accurate grasp of this entire situation," Ayaka began, sitting on the opposite side of the kotatsu from Negi and Asuna. Arika was seated at the corner. "Asuna-san is your daughter, Arika-sama. And I am, as I have recently learned, the daughter of Negi-sensei's father, the Thousand Master. As is Chisame-san.

"Because of this blood connection, Evangeline-san has taken an interest in myself and Chisame-san, in hopes of using us to end some sort of curse that keeps her bound to this school. Further, Nodoka-san is attempting to travel to the magical world in order to kidnap Yue-san, and enlisted Evangeline-san's aid in doing so, using these events as a distraction to prevent anyone from stopping her.

"Unrelated to all of this, Arika-sama, you have been encouraging and training Asuna-san and Negi-sensei in erotic arts, encouraging them to form a sexual relationship despite the taboo of their status as half-siblings. You are also intimate with the two of them. And have, as a group, also enjoyed the company of Konoka-san, Setsuna-san, and Yuna-san, as well as their respective fathers. Have I left anything out?"

"No, I think you've got it all," Arika said. Asuna was looking off to the side, fully expecting a classic Iincho outburst. Negi just looked scared.

"Well, then. I have a question, and I hope you will do me the favor of answering it, Arika-sama," Ayaka said calmly.

"Ask," Arika bade her.

"Is Nekane-san also one of Nagi-san's offspring?"

"Eh?" asked Negi, eyes going wide. Asuna's head whipped around to look at Ayaka. That wasn't the question she'd been expecting at all. The words 'have you quite lost your minds' had been much more prominent in her imagination.

"It is possible," Arika allowed. "She is ostensibly the daughter of Nagi's older brother, Seoman, and her mother was actually a childhood friend of them both. He once confessed to me that he had cuckolded his brother, shortly after Seoman's marriage, and Nekane was born around nine months after that. When all of this happened, though, there were no tests to prove or disprove such matters, at least not in the mountains of Wales."

Negi felt stunned. Nekane-oneechan might actually be his sister, not just a cousin!

"I see," said Ayaka, then picked up the tea cup in front of her and sipped from it.

"You see," said Asuna after a moment.

"Yes, I see," replied Ayaka.

"Have you quite lost your mind?" Asuna said. "No commentary about how I'm a complete and utter hypocrite for taunting you all those times about being a shotacon when I'm having sex with a ten year old boy?"

"I'm eleven," interjected Negi.

"Twelve, technically," noted Arika mildly.

"No snippy remarks about how I've ventured beyond the moral event horizon by having sex with my brother?" Asuna continued as though she hadn't been interrupted. "What's the matter, Iincho, you used to be a lot meaner!"

"Perhaps that's so," Ayaka allowed. "However, for me to insult you on that ground would be the hypocrisy you spoke of, since I have also violated that taboo, recently by offering ... comfort to Chisame-san, and somewhat less recently when Chizuru and I offered similar comfort to Nekane-san. Whether she is my cousin or half-sister is not, I think, actually pertinent. I asked solely to clarify matters."

She finished her tea, lowered it and said, "I want in."

* * *

Evangeline had been as good as her word, Nodoka decided as she made her way along the river. The warning that Chamo brought to Negi would come just late enough that even if he started pursuing her immediately, rather than going to the rescue of Chisame and Ayaka, he'd only have caught up with her now. And since he hadn't, he wasn't going to, and she was in sight of the cave entrance the vampire had told her about. It was too late.

She felt herself wishing that it wasn't, and throttled the feeling.

Less easily banished thoughts had her wondering, why Ayaka? Surely Ako would have been a better target, and wouldn't have required her to put Chizuru in danger too. But Evangeline had been insistent, and Nodoka supposed that it didn't really matter why the vampire had wanted what she wanted. Demons didn't wonder about those sorts of things. Probably.

And now here she was descending into the Underworld. "How Campbellian," she muttered as she walked into the mouth of the cave.

She wasn't sure what to expect. Surely, there wouldn't be any large structures like the gateport in Wales or the one in the ruins of Ostia, which were the only ones she'd ever seen. This was supposedly a small gate used by smugglers to bring things from Mundus Vetus to Mundus Magicus. It needed to operate below the awareness of authorities on both sides, and so -

And so, she realized quite suddenly, she could almost blink and miss the point where she lifted up a foot in one world and set it down again in another. Still, there were clues. She'd been marching forward into darkness, and now the cave instead lead towards a faint, flickering light. Very subtle spell!

Eventually, she emerged into a world lit by torches. It was night, in this part of Mundus Magicus at the moment, and she was coming out of the side of a hill into a market of some sort. All around her were stalls where she could see vendors hawking a variety of goods. The scent of torchsmoke filled the air, making her gag just a little.

"Ker-hem," said a voice to her left. She turned to see a man shorter than she was, grossly fat with a bushy beard and a pair of thick glasses, seated at a table just outside the passageway leading into the hill. "Welcome to the Goblin Market," he said in a surprisingly deep voice. "Aaaand who might you be?"

"I'm, well, I'm nobody, much," Nodoka said, correctly suspecting that this fellow was some sort of authority. "I'm just passing through."

"I see. You're just passing through a gate between worlds that doesn't officially exist. Have a seat," he said, gesturing to a chair that was on the other side of the table; as he did so, he pulled out a bottle of dark liquid, set it down to produce two glasses, and started pouring the contents of the bottle into one of them. "And we'll have a drink."

"I'm not really thirsty, thank you, and I've actually got to be going," Nodoka explained, starting to back away.

The small man was still smiling. "I think we've gotten off on the wrong foot. Yes, I suspect that you're mistaking my friendly and avuncular manner for actual friendliness, and misinterpreting my instructions as polite requests. Now sit down or I'll use the blasting rod I'm holding under the table to put holes in you."

Nodoka sighed in relief. Threats, she could handle. "What's your name?" she asked.

"uh?" he answered.

She nodded, then pitched her voice to carry. "If there's a Julyan Norrich within the sound of my voice, then you should know that Mr. MacTavish, here, has been having sex with your wife. Repeatedly. And pretty much everyone here should know that -"

"You!" Mr. MacTavish shouted, pulled up the blasting rod and fired.

Nodoka knew he was going to do so a half-second before he did, and dropped out of the lightning bolt's narrow path, feeling profoundly grateful he wasn't using a fireball gun. She continued speaking in the same loud voice. "- that he's been charging twice the rent the people who own this land pay him to collect from your shops, and pocketing the difference."

That got their attention. (Nodoka wasn't to know that Julyan Norrich was presently enjoying the attentions of his brother-in-law and couldn't care less what his wife did.) As the mob surrounded MacTavish and began to express their dissatisfaction with his gouging by returning the favor, Nodoka quickly backed away and started for the outskirts of the market.

"That was nicely done," said a voice as she passed by an alley between two booths.

"Thank -" said Nodoka, who was a polite girl, and turned to see who was congratulating her. "- you," she finished weakly when she realized who it was.

"Is it not amazing, the places in which old friends meet?" Tsukuyomi asked sweetly as she slowly drew her sword.

* * *

Sagisawa Yohko, head nurse for all of Mahora Academy, was more than familiar with students and faculty coming into her office with injuries they didn't want to talk about. Not a mage herself, nor even a ministra, she was all too familiar with the habits of those who were. Often she found herself wishing that people who could violate the laws of physics actually acted like storybook wizards and spent most of their time holed up in remote towers contemplating how to do so.

So it was a bit of a surprise when, after her pro forma question about what happened, Naba-san wearily answered her by saying, "I attempted to commit suicide by vampire lolita and failed." It was the sort of answer that faintly cried out for elaboration, but from the look of the girl's face, Yohko wasn't going to get one. Pity, it was probably an interesting story.

"All right, from the looks of things, you've got fractures in all five metacarpals of your hand," Yohko explained. "So we're going to have to put you in a cast."

"The children will enjoy signing it, I'm sure," Chizuru said indifferently.

"That's a good attitude to take. I'll go get the plaster. Nice job bringing her in, Konoe, Sakurazaki," she added to the two students who'd done so, then left for the moment.

"Does it hurt?" Konoka asked hesitantly. "I can probably -"

"It's fine. The pain keeps me from thinking about how much it sucks that my girlfriend is probably cheating on me even now," Chizuru said. "Not to mention probably engaging in unnatural love."

Konoka blushed brightly, while Setsuna turned and coughed. "Well, I mean, you don't know that's going to happen. It might not," Setsuna said weakly, even though she was fairly sure that she was lying.

"It doesn't matter, really," Chizuru replied, dismissively. "Ever since the very first time I saw the two of them together, I knew that they were meant for each other, and that sooner or later I'd have to bow out. Nobody can make Ayaka so ... lively ... as Asuna-san does. No one." She closed her eyes.

"Maybe ... maybe you could ..." Konoka started to suggest.

"No," Chizuru answered, her eyes still closed. "I am monogamous. One lover at a time, thank you. Recent experiences have only convinced me of that. And even if I wasn't, there are certain things which I could never tolerate in a relationship. And ... unnatural love ... is one of them." One eye slid open. "Not that I'm judging the two of you, mind."

Konoka gaped. "You know?" she asked faintly.

"Please," the motherly girl replied, eye sliding closed again. "You two are obviously sisters. It's as plain as the noses on your face. And anyway -"

"Cough, cough, cough," said a voice from the hallway. A moment later, Yohko walked in carrying plaster and bandages for the cast. "All right, let's get down to the business of healing. Thank you, girls, you should go now."

"Yes," said Konoka, practically luminescent. "Let's go, Secchan."

"Mm-hm," Setsuna replied, tight-lipped.

Chizuru noted the absence of an 'oujousama' there, but it really wasn't any of her business, was it?

* * *

Neither Negi nor Ayaka had ever seen each other naked before. Admittedly, Ayaka's swimsuits had often left little to the imagination, and she wasn't that different from Asuna, Konoka, Setsuna or Yuna. Or his mother. Indeed, she was very much like his mother, only not as ... motherly.

For her part, Ayaka couldn't take her eyes off Negi's ... boyhood, she decided, unable to use the term that Arika insisted upon, but recognizing that manhood wasn't right either. She had never actually seen one, circumcised or otherwise, and so wasn't really sure what she was looking at, as he sat on the bottom bunk and the three of them knelt naked on the floor in front of him. But it was very, very cute.

"Is it bigger or smaller than you were expecting?" asked Asuna, getting tired of Ayaka's wide-eyed expression.

"Yes," Ayaka answered without breaking her gaze. "Negi-sensei, can I please kiss you?"

"Ummm ... only if you promise not to call me sensei while we're doing this," Negi replied, only half-joking.

"So that's a yes?" As he nodded, she swooped down to take his boyhood in her mouth.

"Uh, kissing, you said?" Asuna objected.

"This is kissing," Ayaka replied as she came up for air. "See my lips puckered? Kissing. Never said which part I'd kiss. Monkeys get this." She punctuated her words with licks of the tumescent organ, taking it back in when she was done.

"Oh yeah? Well, this is what I call kissing," Asuna replied as she surged up from the floor to press her lips Negi's and rub her breasts against his upper torso. He responded passionately, reaching up to run his hands through her hair.

Ayaka would have ground her teeth, except that she knew to do so would do Negi harm.

"Now, ladies, there's much to be said for both your perspectives," Arika said, concilliatingly, as her own hand moved through Ayaka's hair and caressed down her spine, making her quiver. "Much to be said for both kinds of kissing. You already know that, don't you, Ayaka?" She took hold of the hair and slowly, gently pulled her head back, so as to demonstrate this by kissing Ayaka's mouth.

Ayaka promptly kissed back, and for a few moments their tongues battled back and forth like tiny gladiators. One of Ayaka's hands, the one that didn't keep caressing Negi's genitalia, reached up to grope one of Arika's large breasts, thumb circling the wine-colored areola and pinching the nipple. Arika's own hands curved around Ayaka's firm buttocks, squeezing them.

"Mnmmm," Arika sighed with pleasure. "Yes, you have done this before."

"Didn't I say so? Chizuru and I have been together since I was twelve. And I made the first move," Ayaka said, not being married to the notion of truth.

Arika smiled. Not a natural, like Setsuna, but an experienced lover all the same. She yearned to experience her husband's daughter for herself, but her responsibilities as a mother came first. "Asuna," she said liltingly. "Come down here, please."

Asuna guessed where this was going and blanched even as she pulled back from Negi's hungry lips. "Oh, no," she muttered. "You've got to be -"

"Now, dear." Despite the cheerful, musical tone, it was an unmistakable command, and Asuna followed it, coming back down to the floor as Negi struggled to get back up.

"All right," said Arika, and now her tone wasn't musical at all. "You two have been fighting for a very long time, and if you were honest, you'd admit to fighting mostly because you like it rather than due to any grudge. I am not saying that you can't fight any more, but if you are both going to be part of my son's harem, you cannot be fighting when you're in our bedroom. So since we all know that this hostility is a cover for something else, let's get that something else out in the open, once and for all. Start kissing."

Asuna and Ayaka looked at each other out of the corner of their respective eyes. Each slowly turned to face the other. "This doesn't mean we're friends, right?" they chorused, then nodded. And then Ayaka lunged forward to kiss Asuna passionately, Asuna's hands coming up to wrap around Ayaka's shoulders.

"The rest should be easy," Arika mused as she crawled up into bed with Negi, kissing him deeply and rubbing his cock with the hand that wasn't gently carressing his buttocks.

"Uh, I'm still a little unsure about this harem notion," Negi said weakly, not quite carried away by how his mother made him feel. He'd had a chance to build up resistance. "I don't think that a proper English gentleman should -"

"But Negi, you are not only a proper English gentleman," Arika said persuasively. "You are also an Ostian of the highest order of nobility, and it is entirely in keeping with that status for you to have a harem." Very few Ostians, even among the royalty of that land, had ever chosen to have a harem. They could have if they'd been minded to do so, though. "You do not want to reject your maternal heritage, do you, my son?" Her grip tightened, and one finger gently probed his anus.

"Uhhhh," he said authoritatively.

Meanwhile, Asuna and Ayaka continued to kiss each other, moving back and forth as they pressed up against each other like a pair of wrestlers. Hands groped and pinched at toned muscles and fleshy parts. And then two of Ayaka's fingers slid down Asuna's lower belly and headed up in a different direction, making Asuna's eyes go wide and her mouth make a "yerg!" sound.

"What?" asked the blonde, pulling back from their frantic mutual osculation. "Don't act like you've never been touched before!"

"Not by a girl, not like that!" Asuna retorted, returning the favor and going one better before slamming their lips together again, noting with satisfaction a quite similar "yerg!" sound coming from Ayaka's mouth as she did. It wasn't easy, but she developed a vague plan of doing what she did when she masturbated, only backwards and to someone else.

Getting the thumb up to where it was supposed to be was trickly, but from the gasping that Ayaka did in response, it was also pretty clearly worth it. _Not so self-satisfied now, are yaaaah,_ Asuna thought as Ayaka brought her whole other hand over to caress Asuna's pearl of great price while the fingers of the original hand moved through the gates of Venus. It felt great.

So naturally, Ayaka being Ayaka, she had to spoil the moment. "Wait, I thought you said you'd been with all those girls, so how -" she asked, breaking the kiss.

"I really don't want to talk about my sexual history, Iincho, both because this isn't the time or place -" Asuna replied, through gasps of great pleasure, Her other hand curved around Ayaka's backside to tease at the hole in her butt.

"Ngh, if you're going to do that, at _this_ time and place, you could at least use my name!" Ayaka interrupted.

"- and because! _I! Don't! Like! You!_ " And to prove it she pushed forward, slamming their mouths together, trying her heart out to reach Ayaka's tonsils with her tongue and knocking her back so that she was almost on the ground, only held up by Ayaka's other arm.

And then, once again, she felt the world go all crystalline around her as all of her senses went into overdrive and a low scream bubbled up out of her stomach and a part of her mind felt Ayaka growing tense and taut too and wondered what had just happened to the fingers she had up in her eternal rival to make them get so wet and .. and ...

"Oh," Asuna said, dazedly. "I think I just had an orgasm."

"You _think_?" Ayaka asked, equally out of breath.

"Only ever happened with Negi," Asuna admitted. Then blinked. "Um, but of course, it's not the same. Not, not even close to it."

"Oh, really," said Arika. When the encounter between the two girls had begun to heat up, she'd come down to the floor with Negi wrapped up in her arms, to get a better look. "I think we should test that theory. Negi, you will perform cunnilingus on Asuna, alternating with Ayaka as she does so as well, and we will see whether she can determine the differences between the orgasms you each induce in her. Are you up to this challenge, Ayaka?"

"Indeed," Ayaka replied, eyes narrowed as she pushed a stunned looking Ayaka backwards so that her back lay on the floor, then dove between her legs.

"Uh, I think this experiment's methodology is a little unorthodox," Negi noted. "Wouldn't it make more sense for -"

"Negi," Arika said warningly.

"Yes, ma'am," Negi replied as he went down to accompany Ayaka.

* * *

Nodoka had never actually come face-to-face with the psychopathic mercenary before this, but there was no mistaking her. Likewise, she recognized the sword she was drawing - the notorious Hina Sword - though there was a scroll with unfamiliar characters wrapped in a knot around the point where the hilt met the blade.

"I don't have any quarrel with you," Nodoka said to Tsukuyomi. "You, you've obviously escaped, and you want to use the Goblin Market's portal to get back to Earth, right? Well, thinking about it, um, I wouldn't be using that portal myself if I wanted official attention, right? So, so, so, there's no way that I would ever report you!"

"Hm. Those are excellent points, and you should be commended for thinking of them when you're scared out of your wits," Tsukuyomi said warmly. "Of course, the problem is that I suspect that you'd feel obligated, despite the situation, to do something about my mission to kill your friend Asuna-han."

Asuna? Despite everything, Tsukuyomi was right. If it had been Chisame, or even Ayaka or Makie, she might not have been, but Asuna, despite being closer to Negi than anyone, was too sweet to really hate. She was everything Nodoka wished she could be, the sort of person who'd inspired her to make her feelings known all those months ago.

Okay. There was going to be a fight. Time to level the playing field.

"But, but I didn't even know that until you said it," Nodoka protested.

"Oh, that's right! Such a blabbermouth, me. But I'm surprised, too," Tsukuyomi said with the air of one revealing a confidence. "I thought you could read minds, and surely that would have tipped you off."

"But I can only read someone's mind if I know their name, and all I know is, is what you let people call you, not WHAT IS YOUR NAME!" she abruptly shouted, finger outstretched.

In Nodoka's mind's eye, the pages of the Diarium Ejus took form. The picture was a crudely drawn representation of Tsukuyomi, smiling sweetly, with the words, "Private Diary of Arika Godel" written beside her. Then the words, "Things to Do Today", above an endless parade of blue ink that spelled out _KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL ..._

Tsukuyomi simply regarded her with a lazy smile, head tilted to one side as Nodoka's face drained of all blood. "Not so much fun, being inside my mind, is it? I like it here just fine, though. Tee hee. Now where was I? Oh, yes, I was about to get started on my list of things to do today." And her sword swept up.

* * *

"So what was he like, anyway?" Chisame asked wearily.

They'd decided not to take chances that the purification hadn't worked, and so over her own protests, she'd been sent off to spend the night at Mana's with her and the gigantic idiot. The theory was that if she did turn into a vampiric slave, they'd be the best equipped to deal with her. Chisame still wanted an explanation for what was meant by that. It sounded a little dire.

Right now, though, she was sitting on the bottom bunk (Setsuna's bed, she guessed; she wondered where Setsuna was going to sleep tonight, and then laughed inwardly at the absurd question) looking at Rakan was seated on the floor in front of her. For her part, Mana was over at the room's desk, working on an after-action report. (What action? She hadn't done anything except stand around and look cool!)

"You mean Nagi?" Rakan asked.

"No, I'm talking about Juan Carlos, King of Spain," Chisame replied. "Yes, Nagi! I'm still getting used to the idea that he's my father, and I don't ... all I know is what Negi's told me about him, and what he looked like when that Albireo guy did that thing during the tournament, and ... and the way Negi's mother said I was like him." That was said in a low mutter.

Rakan considered her speculatively. "Nah, I don't see it," he said, shaking his head. "Other the bad temper, the constant stream of sarcasm, and the tendency to punch people who annoy you even though you really like them, you're nothing alike."

Chisame heard a snort coming from Mana's desk, but restrained herself from turning her glare of death in the biathlete's direction. It wouldn't have worked, anyway. "Lots of people have those qualities," she said through clenched teeth.

"Oh, qualities!" Rakan said, grinning broadly. "You want to know about qualities? Well, I'm sorry, Glasses, but I haven't really known you long enough to get a handle on your qualities."

"You want me to hit you, don't you?" Chisame asked, twitching.

"Kinda feels like a kiss when you do. Anyway, I do know about Nagi's qualities," Rakan continued, completely ignoring the bright red blush on Chisame's face. "He was a genius, but completely different from the kid. Negi's all complicated plans, and trump cards, and fallback positions, and stuff that makes my head hurt even thinking about it. Nagi ... improvised. Everything. He'd throw himself into situations, never doubting for a second that he could always figure out how to get out of them, that the universe was just going to give him what he needed to pull it off."

"That sounds more like luck than genius," Chisame said.

"There's all kinds of genius," Rakan allowed. "His was the kind that came out of seeing everything around him, and having seen it, immediately thinking of ways to exploit it for his own benefit. I guess this is why he finally dropped out of wizard school. I mean, sure, he spun it like, 'they didn't have anything to teach me,' but I really think that the truth is, he spent the whole time he was there thinking of better ways to do the stuff they were teaching him, so much so that he didn't really learn the basics. I can see him in the back of class, listening to the other students jabbering about the assignment, and thinking they're all a bunch of idiots.

"Something wrong?"

"No," lied Chisame.

"Hm. Well, anyway, like I said, he finally dropped out of magic school and went off to have all these wild adventures. And I don't think even he realized how much of a chip on his shoulder he had about it. I mean, I don't bring up how I used to be a slave every time I do anything cool, right? But he'd pull that 'Master of a Thousand Spells, even though I dropped out of magic school thing' out every chance he got. I think ... I think that he thought that if he showed everybody in our world how cool he was, it wouldn't matter so much that he was just a screw-up back home."

Chisame found herself shivering, and ordered herself to stop. The order was ignored.

"And the funny thing is ... in the end, he didn't like it all that much. That day, when we thought we'd won, we'd saved the world, I was looking at him ... and I've never seen someone who should be so damn happy, who looked like he had so much of the taste of ashes in his mouth. Like he was wondering, is this it? Is this what it was all for? And that's why he went off and did quieter stuff, afterwards. Because what he'd thought he wanted ... wasn't all that great."

She could see herself, exulting in her domination of the World Wide Web, laughing maniacally ... and realizing how hollow the victory was. Why wouldn't the tears stop when she wanted them to?

"So I guess maybe you can see some similarities, now?" Rakan asked, in a voice that was almost gentle.

"Too many," Chisame admitted, burying her face in her hands.

"Hey. Gla- Chisame. There's worse things than being like a damn cool guy like Nagi, you know? Think about it - you could be like Albireo. Admittedly, that would take some doing."

"Or you could be like a lecherous idiot mercenary," Mana noted, not looking up from her papers.

"Yeah, like whoever she's talking about," Rakan agreed.

That earned him a glare.

"And anyway, nobody's ever really just like their parents," Rakan said. "There's lotsa differences. You're cuter, for one."

Chisame pulled off her glasses and wiped her eyes.

"Much cuter!"

That earned him a pair of glares, but Chisame broke off hers to laugh a little. "You loved him, didn't you?" she asked when she was done.

Rakan coughed, hemmed, hawed ... then shrugged. "Eh, why not. Yeah, little bit. Not as much as Al, and I don't think even Al ever got anywhere on that front. Not that I asked. But ... yeah. It would've been cool."

Chisame leaned back, smiling faintly. "I don't know whether it's all the sex I've been having lately, or maybe the start of turning into a vampire ... but I'm staring to find this bunk a little lonely."

Rakan stared, boggling just a little. "Huh," he said. "Interesting offer. Probably the best come on I've been given in a while. You sure about this? I'm not the hugs and kisses type."

"Neither's Eva," Chisame replied. "I'm good with it."

"Okay, you were warned," the Hero of a Thousand Faces said as he started to pull of his jacket.

"Oh, come on, you're going to do it right in front of me?" Mana said, turning to look in amazement.

"So don't watch," they chorused.

"You're cleaning the sheets before Setsuna gets back, y'hear me!" Mana said as she turned her back to them. She tried to ignore the noise. It should have been easy. 108 sisters, none of whom liked men; they made a lot of noise. She knew how to tune stuff out.

She couldn't tune this out. Particularly the sudden hiss of breath and pain that Chisame gave, early on in the proceedings.

"Cripes, girl, I thought you said -"

"I didn't know it wasn't broken, is this a problem?"

"Hell, no. But it is a little awkward ... um, roll over. It'll be easier on you."

"Also you."

"Well, yes."

And then they didn't say anything more for quite some time, just the sound of flesh on flesh, faint cries of exertion and pleasure, the ectasy of friction. And Mana couldn't tune it out. Finally, hoping that they'd be too distracted to notice, she slid a hand down into her boxers and began to caress herself to the sounds of Chisame's lovemaking. Only those sounds. She wasn't paying any attention to the grunts and odd intimacies that came out of Rakan's mouth.

"Um ... there?" Chisame asked. "You normally do that on the first date?"

"I don't date, Glasses."

"Me neither ... okay, go ahhhhhhhhh."

By now, the boxers were around her ankles, and her tanktop's hem up across her breastbone. Mana's teeth were clenched as she sought her own release. Chisame's gasps were growing longer and higher in pitch, building and building and then -

"Negi!"

 _Oh, you stupid bitch,_ Mana thought.

"Oh, shit," said the same voice, much quieter.

"Hey. Hey, it's okay. I ain't nearly as dumb as everyone thinks, right? So I knew. It's gonna be okay, Chisame. I know it doesn't seem like it, but it is. You just go on, right?"

No response.

"Okay. Sleep, then."

A little while passed, and then Rakan spoke up. "You must really like your paperwork."

There was no more humiliation left. She stood up, pulled the top off completely, looked right at him and allowed her demonic nature out. "If we do this, we do this full on mazoku-style. Hold nothing back, I _will_ be trying to harm you." He was, she noted with a professional glance, still quite ready. That was good.

"What changed your mind?" he asked simply.

"You comforted her," Mana answered him. "That's not what the man my sisters told me about would do."

"Can we be quiet?" he asked, glancing sideways at Chisame's slumbering form.

"The stories say any woman Jack Rakan satisfies sleeps for a full day, though battles rage around her," she taunted. "Do the stories grow in the telling?"

He stood up. "The stories condense," he said, and came at her.

* * *

Asuna hated to admit when she was wrong. But the fact was, the orgasms that Negi had given her and the ones that Ayaka had given her were identical in all respects. She clutched to the belief that Ayaka somehow managed to penetrate her (she had vague notions of how that might work) it wouldn't be nearly as good as what Negi did with natural ability, but she wasn't about to raise the issue. She was having trouble raising her head, actually.

"Selfish monkey girl, taking all of that," Ayaka said, kneeling near her head and bending down to kiss her, giving her a taste of her own essence. "I ought to make you give a little."

"Perhaps later, Ayaka," said Arika's voice, from further down Asuna's body.

Wait. If Ayaka was up here, then ... Asuna found the strength to lift her head and look down.

Arika was on hands and knees, with Negi pounding away behind her, leaning forward with her head between Asuna's thighs. Eyebrow raised, she met her daughter's gaze. "Well? Do you accept me?" A faint smile tilted her lips. "What's it gonna be, girl, yes or no?"

It was a challenge. Asuna knew what she did with challenges. She lifted up her hands, grabbed ahold of Arika's hair and pushed the woman's face down into her core, and almost immediately gasped in yet another stunning orgasm. As she did so, Ayaka bent down to force her breast into Asuna's mouth. She didn't have to force her very much.

It came to Asuna, then, that she was sucking the breast of her worst rival while her long-lost mother performed oral sex on her and the little brother she adored more than anything had sex with the older woman.

It was sick. It was wrong.

It was _amazing_.

Arika smiled as she licked and fingered her daughter's beautiful, almost hairless cunt. There were only a few things that were as good as introducing an almost inexperienced girl to the joys of sex with women. One of them, of course, was introducing a completely inexpeienced girl to the joys of sex, period. (She should really see about bringing Theodora in on this.) Another was sex with multiple men, especially if they weren't shy around each other. (Rakan and Eishun, together on her. Oh, what a delicious thought.) And of course, the death of an enemy at one's hands after a long struggle.

Only one thing was better than all of this, though, and no matter how much joy she felt as Negi drove his little cock into her, she mourned the fact that Nagi wasn't here for all of this. She was almost angry at him that it wasn't happening. The thought of sharing her daughter and his daughter with him, of having him at the same time (and possibly in the same hole) as their son ... oh, it must happen, it must. But this was still very pleasant, and from the rapidity of the strokes, Negi was finally about to -

Wait. Where had Negi gone?

She paused in her cunnilingus to look behind her and felt her eyes widen as she saw that Ayaka had pulled Negi out of and off of her and was now frenetically riding him, facing away from her.

"You like this, don't you, Negi," Ayaka asked, between gasps. "You like to be with your oneesan."

"Yes, yes," Negi agreed. Honestly, at this point, he was agreeing to everything on general principle.

Arika knew several ways to break someone's neck from behind. She only needed one as she pushed herself up and began to slowly move towards Ayaka with hands outstretched -

Asuna objected, grabbed hold of her and wrestled her back to the floor. She hadn't fully appreciated how strong Asuna was, as they grappled and ground together, bringing a different sort of pleasure to them both.

Ayaka, not realizing her narrow escape, continued to lever herself up and down on Negi's boyhood. "Say it. Say you like to be with your oneesan. Sayyyy it!"

"I l-like to be with, with my oneeeesan!" Negi complied.

"And your oneesan is so happy to be with you!" Ayaka cried, achieiving climax both physically and emotionally. "Oneesan wanted to be with you soooo much! Oneesan is so happy happy happy! Give oneesan happy! Give it!" She was babbling at this point. It didn't matter much as Negi achieved his own climax and spilled his seed into her.

"Oneesan loves otouto," Ayaka said, weeping, as she cradled Negi against her breasts.

* * *

The psychotic was toying with her, Nodoka knew. She couldn't read her mind, beyond that unending litany of murder, sometimes interspersed with occasional obscenities, so she couldn't anticipate her actions. She was quick, with the physical reinforcement magic she'd picked up as an adventurer, but she shouldn't be able to get out of the way of that terrible swift sword every single time. And she had been.

So Tsukuyomi was deliberatesly missing her, and Nodoka knew that she wanted her to know this. It was a game. But the never-ending blue ink told her frankly that how the game was supposed to end. When Tsukuyomi ( _Godel-san's daughter!_ a part of her mind that wasn't completely terrified managed to recall) grew tired of the game, then it would end that way. And then -

Her back slammed into a wooden wall.

"Oh, dear," said Tsukuyomi. "No more room to back up. Now, you could go right -"

And the tip of the sword carved into the wood to her right.

"- or left -"

Into the wood to her left this time.

"- but you know, I don't think either of those are gonna work out too well for you. So really, there's only one place left to go. A very narrow road, but one well-travelled. Buh-bye!" And the sword came up, and Nodoka knew where it was going to go when it came down. There was a whistling in her ears, and time was slowing down. She knew that meant it was over, all over. Her mind was struggling to hold on to every last paltry second. She chose her last word well.

"Yue," she said.

And a knight in shining armor on a broomstick dropped out of the air between them, sweeping up a buckler to block the sword as it descended. The buckler deformed under the blow, but that just held the sword in place further as the sollerets covering the knights boot, as hard as the gauntlets that covered the hands, swung up to strike Tsukuyomi in the stomach, sending her tumbling back without the sword.

A quarter turn, and Nodoka could see the broad forehead beneath the knight's helm.

"You called?" said Yue Farandole.

"Why do you awful girls insist on thwarting me!" Tsukuyomi shrieked.

* * *

"Are you still mad at me?" Ayaka asked hesitantly as she sat beside Arika on the bottom bunk, both still quite naked.

Arika finished rehydrating from a bottled water. "I'd prefer not to talk about that, if it's all the same to you," she said, somewhat brusquely.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize that Negi had never -" Ayaka started to apologize.

"Or that. Rather not talk about that, either."

"All right. I am curious about Asuna's father," Ayaka said. "I mean, I know -"

"Do you really want to know the details of what my father did to me?" Arika asked calmly. "I will tell you. They will not be pleasant."

"No, no. I'm sorry, I'm not being clear," Ayaka said, waving a hand in negation. "What I wanted to ask was ... that forelock, in Asuna's hair ... did your father have one like it?"

Up on the top bunk, Negi and Asuna were spooning, with Negi in front, of course. "So, I think we learned a very valuable lesson today," Negi opined wearily.

"'I enjoy sex with girls as much as I do with Negi,'" Asuna mused. "Probably not going on anyone's lesson plan any time soon."

"Well, I think it's good to understand about onesel- hey, as much as I do with Negi? That's very flattering, but don't you mean sex with boys?"

"Nope," Asuna said flatly. "Oh, I admit that I do have a few fantasies about Takahata-sensei."

"Well, of course."

"And one or two about Kotaro-kun."

"Understandable."

"And Fate does have a certain undefinable charisma, doesn't he?"

"... well, um, I suppose."

"Of course, lately all these fantasies are pretty much about watching them having sex with you," Asuna explained.

"Ehhhhh?" Negi asked, eyes wider than ever.

"Kidding," Asuna sang gently. "No, I meant sex with Negi, not sex with guys. Sex with Akashi-sensei didn't do anything for me, so I don't think any of my oyaji-con ideas are worth much, really. So, I think we have a fair deal. I won't have sex with other guys, and neither will you. That's fair, right?"

"Oookay," said Negi, trying to get ideas about Fate's quote-unquote undefinable charisma out of his head. "But you're okay with me being with other girls."

"As long as I get to be. And probably, I won't want to be with many, but that's not here or there. Because there's another thing I've learned today about myself, Negi."

"What?" he asked, genuinely surprised.

She leaned down to caress his ear with her tongue, then whispered, "I love to watch you fuck."

Back below, Arika gently rested a hand on Ayaka's thigh. _It's fortunate you have certain abilities relating to communication, or I wouldn't be able to do this,_ she telesent. _I'm not very good with telepathy._

Ayaka blinked. _I already suspected the existence of those abilities, but I didn't realize they extended to this,_ she telesent back.

_The answer to your question is, yes. The answer to your implied question is, yes, I suspect that Nagi's mother, who would be Nekane's grandmother regardless of her father, and yours as well, was an Entheofushia byblow. I haven't been able to prove anything, as she died when he was six, and Stan, his father, was ... not well-disposed to either of us. And is not now available._

_Not -_

_There are worse things than death._

Ayaka shook herself to get free of the chill those words provoked as Arika removed her hand. "Now, a question from me to you. In your experimentation with Chizuru-san, did you ever encounter the concept of fisting?"

"No, I can't say that I've ever heard of that before now."

"Oh, good," said Arika. "I like to introduce new things to people." There was a roll of thunder to accompany her words, as the storm which had been building since earlier this afternoon finally got on its way.

"Well, I'm sure that -" Whatever Ayaka was sure of was never to be known, for a cell phone began buzzing Maurice Chevalier's 'Thank Heaven for Little Girls'. "That's mine," she said, and rooted through the clothes dumped on the floor until she found it. "Hello? Oh, father. I'm sorry to keep you waiting. No, I'm quite - is it mother? Oh. I'm glad to hear it. Then what - oh. Well, certainly. I would be happy to do it. Yes, just tell him to come around to my dorm room tomorrow morning. Yes, I'll keep him out of trouble. Thank you, father. My love to mother. Goodbye."

"What did Yukihiro-sama want?" Arika asked, curiously.

"My grandfather - well, I mean, of course, the man I thought of as my grandfather - is coming around to visit the academy. He's retired from the business end of our family's affairs, but still manages a fair amount of our charitable work, and may be wanting to increase the endowment we give the Academy. So I'll be spending the next little while showing him around. Father warned me to keep him out of trouble, which I thought was a bit absurd. How much trouble could an eighty-year old man get into?"

Another loud roll of thunder.

"Going to be a stormy night," Arika mused.

* * *

Over in Haruna's room, the mangaka was curled up in bed, making plans for the next day. She wouldn't violated any confidences at the meeting tomorrow, but she could guide the conversation to the point where the others suspected what was going on. And then ... well, she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

There was a knock on the door. Haruna got up to answer it. On the other side were a moderately bedraggled looking Konoka and Setsuna. "Would it be all right if we -" Konoka started to ask.

"You sleep in separate beds," Haruna answered. "And not in mine," she added with a glare in Konoka's direction.

"All right," Setsuna agreed, before Konoka could say anything. Then she walked in past Haruna, leaving Konoka and Haruna to stare at each other for a long moment, before the young healer mage nodded and went in as well.

* * *

Outside, in the wind and the rain, Tsukuyomi stood watching the window of the room occupied by the woman she was supposed to kill, absently cleaning the Hina Sword's blade of its most recent victim's blood. Getting it back hadn't been easy, nor had escaping the knights come to arrest her. But it had all worked out, and here she was, right as rain, ready for the mission.

The great part of all this was that she'd probably get to kill her sempai's precious ojousama, since her employer didn't bother to specify that she should or shouldn't leave witnesses. And she'd get to test her steel against not only her sempai, but that adorable little wizard. He'd probably try to stop her, too.

Ah, what bliss.

Hm. It seemed that there were other women in there as well. A blonde girl who had a bit of arcane tracery clinging to her, but seemed relatively mundane. She dismissed her from her thoughts as once. But the other ... there was something familiar about her, but she couldn't immediately place her.

And then she came right up to the window and looked out just as lightning lit her face, and Tsukuyomi knew her.

She could never forget that face, that beloved face.

"Mommy?" she whispered.

And then a hand fell on her shoulder, but before she could swing the Hina Blade up to take it off at the wrist, it started to grip, with strength enough to tell her it could and would crush if she moved.

"So you're the one they call Tsukuyomi," said a cold, dry male voice. "You need practice in stealth, I'm afraid."

She coughed. "You have the advantage, sir. Whom have I the honor of addressing?" Her father had taught her politesse, even if she saw no real point to it. Usually.

And then she was spun around, looking up at a tall, ancient-seeming man with bone white hair with a distinctive forelock, and a pair of mismatched eyes.

"There are two possibilities," he replied to her question. "In the first, you are addressing the person who will immediately end your wicked life. In which case you have no more need to know my name than one struck down by an arrow needs to know who shot it. In the second, you are addressing your new employer, whom you will loyally serve with all the many talents at your disposal. In which case, you will call me Alladia-sama. Well?"

"Thank you for taking me in your care, Alladia-sama," she said. This ... promised to be interesting.

**END PART TWO**

**Next:** Yue


	24. Side-Story -- Chizuru Redux

The worst thing in the world, according to Naba Chizuru, definitely had to be awakening in the middle of the night, in a fair amount of pain despite the meds, and needing to make one's way to the comode to answer the call of nature.

Not so bad, you might think. The problem arises when you return to bed after doing so, only to find sleep eluding you, and nothing to occupy yourself but your thoughts.

Still not as bad as it could be, perhaps. But then your thoughts turn to what the person you love much more than life itself is doing with other people. Possibly several other people.

Chizuru sighed and gave up on sleep for the moment. The sad part of it all was that she'd known this day was coming for a while now. She'd even realized when it was inevitable, that night in the mountains of Wales ...

* * *

It had been just a couple of days or so after Negi and the others had gone off on what they later learned was a dangerous and frightening adventure, leaving them behind to wonder what was going on. The people at Meridiana College, where Negi had been educated, were friendly and genial hosts, but offered no explanations. This was really only bothersome to Ayaka and to Chizuru herself. Kotaro and Natsumi, whom she cared about like her own children, were among the vanished ... and then there was Negi.

Shouldn't his "sister" be just as concerned? (Chizuru had quickly learned that she was actually a cousin, but since she was "big sister" to dozens of kindergarteners, she wasn't inclined to quibble.) She suspected that the older woman knew more than she was saying. There'd been that odd moment that first day after, when some sort of news had been passed along to almost everyone in town while keeping their guests out of the loop.

Ayaka had made yet another attempt to draw some information out of Nekane by speaking with her when they met that afternoon. The expression on her face when she came back told Chizuru that the attempt had been unsuccessful. "We had a very nice conversation," Ayaka said, sounding annoyed.

"Yes, I saw." And then the words that changed everything. "I didn't know you spoke Welsh."

Ayaka stopped in her tracks as she walked ahead of Chizuru, turning back to look at her with a furrowed brow. "... whatever are you talking about, Chizuru? We were talking in Japanese."

"No, you were talking in Japanese, she was answering you in Welsh. At least I assume it was Welsh, it certainly wasn't English." It had been odd, but Ayaka was certainly clever enough, and sufficiently obsessed with Negi, to pick up enough of his native language in the year or so since they'd met.

"... you speak a little Greek, right?" Ayaka inquired after a long moment of thought.

"Sure," Chizuru answered quickly. "I wanted to read the Almagest in the original, and -"

"Say something in Greek," Ayaka interrupted.

Just a bit piqued at being cut off like that, Chizuru promptly said the Greek word for 'something'. "Kati."

"Not in Japanese!" Ayaka protested.

Chizuru stared at her friend, wonderingly. "... that was Greek."

Ayaka stared right back.

After a moment, Chizuru held up a hand and waved in front of Ayaka's face. No reaction. "Wow," she muttered, and gently led her friend over to a nearby park bench. She knew Ayaka's numerous quirks very well, but this was one that she'd never seen before. This resembled a petit mal seizure, almost ... fortunately, without the incontinence she'd come to associate with the one boy in her kindergarten class who suffered from them.

Ayaka came around about a minute later, and quietly, much more politely, asked her to say some more greek. She recited what she could remember of the first book of the Anabasis, and Ayaka repeated it back to her in perfect Japanese. The class representative then spoke to her successively in what she claimed were English, Spanish, and Latin. Chizuru knew only the first and third of those, and yet she understood what was being said regardless.

"This makes no sense," Ayaka said eventually. "Language does not work like this. I cannot have learned it without realizing it. Nor should you be able to understand me when I speak in a language you haven't learned." Her voice grew more angry. "It's one miracle too many."

"One -"

"Don't repeat me. That's so annoying when people do that." Ayaka got up. "I have a plan for how to deal with this situation. I will need your help."

Chizuru blinked. "Ayaka, you should know that you never have to ask me for that."

"This time I do."

That worried her, but she followed along as Ayaka sought Nekane out again, this time playing the flighty, spoiled rich girl to the hilt as she blathered about how it had been days since they had had a good bath. The tubs in their rooms, she said, did not suffice. One needed to soak.

Nekane considered. "Well, there are the baths that the Russians built. There used to be a fair number of them living here - Anya's parents were some of them."

"'Used to be'?" Chizuru wondered aloud.

Nekane coughed and explained that they'd largely moved on to do work elsewhere. Chizuru knew an evasion when she heard one, and didn't press. Ayaka agreed that the baths sounded perfect for their use, and, oh so casually, invited Nekane to join them. "Its how we in Japan celebrate friendship, as I'm sure you know."

Nekane seemed genuinely touched by the invitation, and agreed to come with them. She even recruited a few students of the college, where she was employed as some sort of teaching aide, to get the baths ready.

As they were stripping down in the change room, Chizuru blinked as Nekane's stockings came off to reveal some quite horrific scarring on her legs around her knees. Her medical knowledge was more or less limited to first aid and folk remedies, and she had no idea what could possibly cause such injuries. She glanced at Ayaka, hoping to draw the other girl's attention to them, but Ayaka seemed oblivious at the moment.

Once inside, Ayaka paused to talk to Nekane. "Would you be so kind as to permit me to scrub you? It's part of the custom."

"I would be delighted. I really must visit Japan one of these days," Nekane said. "I started to learn your langugage when I was just a child, when my uncle started to send me presents from there."

"You really speak it excellently, doesn't she, Chizuru?" Ayaka asked as she started to lather up her hands.

"Mm, quite," Chizuru said, as she didn't agree. Her accent was terrible.

"I wish that I spoke it better," Nekane said modestly. "Negi is much better at it than I am."

Well, there we're in agreement.

"Yes, Negi-sensei is very good at a surprising number of things. Such a fine young man, too. I'm sure that you worry about him quite a bit, particularly considering his secret," Ayaka said casually as she began to scrub Nekane's back.

Chizuru saw it. Nekane froze for a second before she said, "Secret?" in a puzzled voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't he tell you? We know all about it, don't we, Chizuru? We aren't ... well, qualified to participate in the same way that Kagurazaka and the others are, but he has trusted us. Please don't ever think that we'd ever betray his trust."

"I really don't -" Nekane said, hesitantly.

"Nekane-san, please. It's obvious, to anyone of any discernment, that you are terribly worried about him. So are we. It is not a friendly act to worry alone," Ayaka said earnestly.

The older woman hesitated again ... then crumbled. "He did mention that there were others of his students who knew, who weren't going with him," she murmured. "I still can't believe that he's told so many about his wizardry. Such a risk ... he could easily end up as an ermine at this rate ..."

"That would be awful!" Ayaka agreed shaking her head. "Almost as awful as you being turned into an ermine because you revealed the existence of wizardry to two girls who had no notion of it."

"Yes, I -" And then the implications of that remark caught up with Nekane, and she stared at Ayaka in horrified disbelief.

"It's the one thing that makes everything else make sense," Ayaka murmured, almost thinking aloud. "All the mysteries, all the miracles ... it all only makes sense if one thing is true. 'Magic is loose in the world, and chaos is king.'"

"No," Nekane said weakly. "No, I can't, you, no, I can't have betrayed him too, please, no -"

Ayaka quickly slid around to kneel in front of Nekane's crouched form. "Hush, hush, it's okay, Nekane-san. What I said earlier, that was a mix of truth and lies. What was most true about it was that we would never ever betray his trust. Especially not if that would mean he'd be turned into some kind of animal. Chizuru, am I lying when I say this?"

"No," Chizuru said faintly, trying to adjust to the shock. "No, you're not. And Nekane-san, if someone tried to do that to someone I cared about, I'd kill the person who was trying. No matter what."

"She's more violent than I am, but you get the idea," Ayaka said, reaching up to rest her hands on Nekane's shoulders. "I just want to know what's going on, Nekane-san. I love that boy as though he were my little brother. You understand that, right? It's the same with you."

Nekane's panicked near-hyperventillation had slowed over the course of Ayaka's speech. "Yes," she finally said. "Like a little brother. Exactly ..." She drew in a deep breath. "All right," she said. "I'll tell you everything."

And she did.

"Incredible." Ayaka murmured as she sat in the bath somewhat later. "So much that I never questioned or suspected."

"That's more a credit to the other wizards of Mahora than a criticism of yourself, Ayaka-san," Nekane opined as she sat beside her, having regained most of her former poise. "If we're doing our jobs, no mundane should have cause to suspect that anything out of the ordinary is happening."

On Ayaka's other side, Chizuru wasn't sure that she liked the unquestioning sense of superiority that implied. Of course, the fact that she definitely had known that somethng out of the ordinary was happening the first time the occulted world had touched her own might have had something to do with that.

"Still," muttered Ayaka, who probably wasn't thinking along those lines. She shook her head. "Never mind. Again, I am very sorry that I tricked you in that way, Nekane-san."

"It's my own fault for underestimating both of you, I suppose," Nekane said wearily. "And of course, as a student representative at a magical school, you were bound to be a Great Communicator. Diplomatic talents should be assumed."

Chizuru could almost see Ayaka filing that new term away for later. "Still, it was very wrong of me to prey on your loneliness like that. Offering you friendship ... please accept it as genuine."

"I'm happy to do so. And you're right, I have been very lonely since Negi left to be a teacher. My work occupies my days, but the nights ..." Nekane sighed, and shook her head.

"No ... friends?" Ayaka asked, with what passed for delicacy.

"No. No lovers. Not for a very, very long time. Raising Negi, I had to put him first, and now ... now I'm old."

"No," Ayaka protested. "You can't be more than twenty-one."

Nekane's lips quirked in a smile. "Bless your heart, dear. Almost twenty-four. Well-past sweet sixteen, and still never been kissed."

 _What an odd expression,_ thought Chizuru.

"Then let's change that," Ayaka said, and suited the action to the words.

Nekane blinked in surprise as she was quite soundly kissed ... but to Chizuru's surprise, she didn't pull back, instead deepening the kiss and raising her hands to run up Ayaka's sides to her firm breasts, squeezing them and thumbing at her nipples. Ayaka responded by moving around again so that she was in front of Nekane, bringing her own hands up to return the gesture. Nekane leaned back, breaking the kiss as she sighed. "So long ..." she murmured.

"I may need a little help, here," Ayaka said, and no one who wasn't Chizuru would have picked up on the nervousness and insecurity in her tone.

Well. She'd said she didn't have to ask ...

Technically, it could be said that Chizuru did not have sex with Nekane. Kissing, caressing, even suckling at the breasts, all these could be referred to as simply heavy petting. But that was the sort of self-serving argument that she despised in others. She was interacting intimately with the woman, so she was having sex with as surely as it had been her, rather than Ayaka, down between her legs, kissing and fingering at her gates of Venus. And as Ayaka brought Nekane to her screaming orgasm, Chizuru felt herself have one as well from the sheer beauty of these two bringing such pleasure to each other.

And after all, she did taste Nekane's flavors, when Ayaka rose up to kiss her, and received kisses, caresses and suckling at her own teats from the older woman as Ayaka went down to pay homage to the flower of Chizuru's joy. And in the haze of passion that followed, as they were both licking and suckling at Ayaka at the same time, and their hands went ... everywhere ... who could say for sure what happened?

It was very late in the evening when the two Mahora students, dressed in borrowed robes, made their way back to the inn where they were staying.

"That was ... very unexpected," Ayaka admitted. "But it was -"

"Never again," Chizuru said simply.

"What?" Ayaka said, blinking. "Didn't you like it?"

"That's not the point," Chizuru replied.

"Then what is?"

"The point is, I have to share you in public, and I can accept that. I don't like it, but you have your status to think about, and so do I. So I will let the world have you, in public. But in private, I want you all to myself. I think that I deserve to be a little selfish." Chizuru swallowed. "But. That is your choice, ultimately. You can have the world, or you can have me. It's your choice."

* * *

"It's your choice ..." Chizuru repeated, much later, alone in bed, cursing her folly.

She should have known how that would turn out. Push someone to make a choice, and they will always choose the option that leaves them less pressured.

It was too late for regrets. But ... now that she reflected, a bit, she realized that there had been something off about Nekane's behavior in all of that. If she'd never had lovers, not in all the time she'd raised Negi, then how had she been so enthusiastic, so skilled? And why had she been so relieved when Ayaka compared her feelings for Negi to her own? Something was very strange there.

But it was late, and Chizuru was tired and in pain, and Nekane was far away. It didn't matter.

Very little mattered anymore, on this longest night of her life thus far.


	25. Yue

Nodoka awoke slowly, which was characteristic of her, for she'd never been a morning person. She was awakened by the sunlight streaming gently through a window, which wasn't characteristic of her at all, since she slept in a room whose windows faced west. As her consciousness assembled itself, she realized that she was not in a bunk bed, not staring up at a familiar ceilling, and on sheets that were much finer than those she usually slept on.

She also realized that she wasn't alone.

"Oh," Nodoka said softly as she looked over at Yue, still fast asleep with her head on the pillow beside her. "That wasn't a dream, then." For a few moments, she simply lay there, watching the slow rise and fall of Yue's chest, naked beneath the sheets. And remembering ...

* * *

The problem with making plans, Yue told her later, was that despite stories, nobody could really plan for everything. You can have sixteen contingency plans in waiting, but that will not stop your opponent from introducing a seventeenth threat against which you haven't prepared any defense or counteragent to let you keep fighting. And that could lead to the other problem - what happened when you fell in love with your plans, and didn't react well to how they were disrupted. Yue tried to avoid that, but Nodoka suspected she fell victim more than she liked to admit.

So, for example, while pursuing Tsukuyomi, who'd trespassed on Ariadne's grounds, seriously injured several students, broken into the college's most secure vaults, and made off with the Hina Sword, Yue had expected certain things. She'd expected that the mercenary would try to take hostages, and she was prepared for that. She had spells readied that would separate her from them without doing them harm, spells of protection that would shield the hostages, healing spells so that if Tsukuyomi did harm them she could mitigate it, and so on ...

But she hadn't been prepared for the sight of Tsukuyomi about to Nodoka. Nothing could have prepared her for that. And so she'd set aside her plans for the moment, and dropped out of the sky to prevent it directly. It was showboating, she admitted later. It was risky and dangerous and foolish. But the alternative was to let Nodoka take wounds that the healing spells she carried might or might not be capable of fixing.

So there she found herself, minus a shield, with her primary weapon, a blast lance, one not really designed for close-in fighting. standing between Nodoka and one of the most dangerous people either of them had ever met. From the files she'd been given on the skills of a Shinmeiryu swordmaster, she knew perfectly well that Tsukuyomi would be able to call the sword back to her hand given a moment of concentration. This was not a good situation to be caught in alone.

Good thing that she wasn't.

Even as Tsukuyomi shouted about how unfair it all was, Collette and Beatrix were dropping into position behind Nodoka and Yue, having descended less vertically than Yue had. As the mercenary reached out a hand to grab hold of the sword lying several feet away from her, the two cadets peppered the ground in front of her with barrages from their lances, driving Tsukuyomi back a pace from the bursts of energy. Then Emily came down between them, wand raised high, and began a formal demand for surrender as Tsukuyomi took another step back.

_Wait,_ thought Yue, _why is she retreating from us?_

There was an instant when Yue could have done something, and in fact, she did. "Iincho, fire fire fire!" she called out, even as Tsukuyomi took that third step back. She wasn't retreating, but building up space to make a running forward dash, hand outstretched to pull the Hina Sword up to her, out of the shield and into her hand, then soaring up to land on the very point of Emily's broom and swinging the edge of the sword down under the knight's unguarded right ...

Maybe Yue's warning did help a bit. Perhaps, without it, Emily wouldn't have been able to get up a light shield spell before the blade slammed into her side, slowing it down so that it only broke through the armor and made a relatively small cut into her flank. Perhaps without that shield, it would have gotten much further in, resulting in a much deeper would. You could go mad thinking about the perhapses of a situation.

What did happen was that Tsukuyomi followed up her swordstrike with a jump kick that knocked a stunned Emily off of her perch on the broom. Collete, Beatrix and Yue all had to work quickly to feather fall her so that the plunge didn't finish the job that the sword had left hanging, which left them all with exactly no time to stop the mercenary from riding the broom down into the market and out of sight.

"Well, this is a mess," Emily had muttered as Yue worked frantically to close the wound on her side. Nodoka had frowned at the apparent ingratitude, but Emily paid her no mind until she explained what Tsukuyomi had told her about her plans. That had changed her tune. "Well, this is a _gargantuan_ mess." Or at least some of the notes.

They didn't have authorization to go through any portals, legitimate or illegitimate. The only thing to do was to head back to Ariadne with this new information, which meant that Nodoka had to come with them. So she was mounted up behind Yue, clinging to her probably more closely than she really had to, as they flew for half an hour to the city state. They were immediately admitted to Headmaster Seras' office, who listened to their verbal report with a grim expression.

"I'll have to contact some people, and see about this," she said when they were done. "Nonetheless, well-done on determining her plans, all of you. Miyazaki-san, I hope you'll accept our hospitality for the night." Nodoka had told them that she was on a mission here that she couldn't talk about. (Which was true, from a certain point of view.) So of course she accepted, and let Yue lead her to the guest room on the eastern side of the college. There they talked for a little while, growing comfortable in each other's presence once more.

"Well, um, I should let you get some sleep," Yue had eventually said, looking towards the door.

Nodoka felt the memory charms in her pocket. She decided that they could wait. "Yue, please stay," she said.

They looked at each other, doused the lights ... and said nothing at all to each other for the next little while. Sometimes, even Yue had to admit, words just got in the way.

* * *

Nodoka looked down at Yue's body, remembering last night. The sweetness of their reunion after all these weeks of separation had very nearly distracted her from the mission. As did the fact that when she destroyed the memories of the person Yue Farandole, their relationship would go back to being what it had been at the start of their journey into the magical world - best friends, rivals in love ... and utterly in denial about how they felt about each other.

Or at least Yue would go back to that. Nodoka's own feelings would stay the same, and she was suddenly uncertain about the wisdom of that. But if she stopped now, all the horrific things that she'd done - her betrayal of Ayaka and Chizuru, her anger at Haruna and Zazie - they would all have been utterly pointless. She'd chosen to become a demon. It was not a road she could choose to stop walking.

She slid out of bed and quietly padded over to where she had dropped her clothes on the floor after the lights went out. The charms were hidden in a pocket inside her trousers, along with the small amount of Mundus Magicus currency she'd acquired in her career as an adventurer and held onto after the affair had ended.

She would use the restoration charm, and then the erasure charm. With Yue in a confused state, it would be easy for them both to slip out of the city state. Or so she hoped. The difficulties of doing so when neither of them had (or least would remember having) been in this city before were not trivial, but they would be overcome because they had to be overcome. There was no other ...

Where were the charms? The money was there, in the pocket, but the charms were -

"If you are looking for these," Yue's quiet voice said from behind her, "then I'm going to have to ask what you intend to do with them before I give them back to you."

Nodoka felt herself turn to ice. Slowly, like a glacier, she turned to look behind her. Yue was seated seiza, looking at her levelly without any visible expression - even to her, who knew just how expressive her supposedly expressionless face could be - and with a pair of red crystals resting in her right hand.

"How did you -" Nodoka started to ask.

"I have to visit the bathroom fairly often, you know," Yue said in the same even tone. "I did so last night, while you were sleeping. When I came back, I saw how we'd just left our clothes scattered all over the place. It wasn't becoming. So I started to pick them up and fold them and put them on the table ... and I felt something odd in your pants." She was silent for a while. "You know that possession of those by a civilian is a felony in Ariadne, right?"

"No," Nodoka answered.

"Do you care?"

"No."

"So. Who are you planning to use them on?" Yue asked. Same even tone. Giving nothing away.

It would be so easy to lie. Say that Pal had talked her into some scheme that was supposed to set up her conquest of the magical world. Say anything but the truth in fact. What was one more crime, after all? What was a lie to a person who wasn't going to exist in a moment?

"I was going to use them on you," Nodoka answered.

"So," said Yue, and nothing else for a few moments. Then, just as Nodoka was opening her mouth to say ... she wasn't sure what ... Yue started to talk again. "Memory restoration to give me back all of the memories I've lost, and then memory erasure to reset me to the way I was before I lost them, correct?"

Nodoka nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

"Pretty good plan," Yue mused. "Utterly lacking in any ethical dimension, but it probably would have worked in the short term. I am curious, though ... how are you planning to explain my reappearance at Mahora? Our classmates know about my situation. They'll ask the me with no memories of Ariadne what happened. How will you deal with that?"

"I was going to cross that bridge when I came to it," Nodoka admitted. "Probably I'd tell you - the you with no memories - that everyone had been deceived, and you shouldn't be bothered by what they said. Or maybe I'd make up some story ..."

"More lies. More deception. You really have left the path of righteousness far behind you, haven't you, Nodoka?" Still even in tone. Neither condoning, nor condemning.

"I said I'd become a demon to get you back, Yue," Nodoka answered, feeling her eyes start to brim with tears. "I've done much worse things already."

"Really? I'm sorry to hear that. Particularly since I don't understand _why_." Now, and only now, there was just a hint of emotion in her voice. "I knew that leaving you the way that I did, I knew that would hurt ... but I thought you'd get over it. I thought, you have friends, you have family -"

"Family?" Nodoka shouted. "You -" She broke off, shook her head as tears started to flow down her cheeks. "You really don't understand at all, do you? You really don't remember?"

"I remember most of it," Yue said defensively. "But it's all so confusing, like it happened to someone else. I remember that you have a family, and that I don't. That my parents died when I was little, and I went to live with my grandfather. When he died, too, I was packed off to Mahora at the start of junior high school, and that's when I met you. You were with people, even then. I was alone. I thought, no matter how close you and I were, you have other people who need you ... like the people here need me. Was I wrong?"

Nodoka closed her eyes, thinking of Haruna, thinking of Konoka, thinking of Negi-sensei, oh, Negi-sensei. "No. But _I_ needed _you_."

"I see. Well. Then there's really nothing left to say is there?"

And she reached out and set the two charms down on the bedspread in front of her.

Nodoka stared in confusion. "But -"

"I said, I needed to ask what you intend to do with them before I give them back to you. And I asked. I don't like the answer very much. But that's neither here nor there. I didn't say, I needed to ask you before I decide whether to give them back to you. They're yours. It would be wrong to take them from you and not give them back. So there they are. Come and take them."

"But ... but what about what you said about the law?" Nodoka protested, confused almost beyond words.

"In this room, I am not Yue Farandole, cadet Knight of Ariadne, sworn to uphold the law. In this room, I am just Yue, the person who loves Miyazaki Nodoka, and believes in her. All of my memories are a little blurry ... but there's one that's come back very clearly. I remember doing something, something very foolish. And you slapped me. And you hugged me. And you lied, and said it was all right, and admitted that it was a lie, but that you cared about me and so you'd make it true somehow."

Now tears were trickling down from Yue's eyes, too. "I don't know what that was about. But I know it was important. And I know that there was a time when you were stronger and wiser than I could ever hope to be. So maybe that's true now, too. Maybe you see something that I don't. Maybe this is what has to be. I love you, Nodoka. I always will, no matter what. And I believe you'll do the right thing."

"I don't know what the right thing is," Nodoka protested, brokenly.

Yue shrugged. "Then you'll do the wrong thing, and live with it. I won't stop you. I won't fight you. Now there really is nothing more to say." And so she said nothing more.

Nodoka got up, slowly walked over to the far side of the bed, where Yue was sitting with the charms in front of her. As promised, Yue didn't lift a finger to prevent her from reaching down with unsteady hand to pick them up. She didn't show any reaction at all as Nodoka took them, one in each hand. Breathing heavily, as though lifting the tiny jewels had been an immense strain, she clutched them tightly ... and then, with a spasm of effort, squeezed her right hand tightly.

There was a burst of red light, and Yue flinched back ...

And remembered everything. Everything as though it had happened to her, which it had. Every moment of pain, every ounce of triumph. She was almost drowning in the memories, fourteen long years of her life. Was she Ayase Yue? Was she Yue Farandole? Ayase Yue Farandole?

No. She was Yue who loved Nodoka. She'd said that almost in jest, and yet it was the one thing she could cling to as true, the one thing true about both the people she'd been in her young life. And as she clung to it in that torrent of memories, like someone clinging to a fragment of a sinking ship, something came out of the sea ...

_"Aren't you going home for the summer?"_

_"No. There's nowhere left to go."_

_"Ah. I ... understand what that's like."_

_"Do you?"_

_"... let me tell you a story. There was once a poor but very beautiful girl. She didn't want to be poor, so she decided to become rich. And the best way that she could become rich, she thought, was to marry someone who had a lot of money. And so she found someone like that, a businessman, and made him fall in love with her, so he'd want to marry her ... and got pregnant, so he had to marry her. And then they were married, and their daughter was born ... and then everything went wrong._

_"Because she didn't love him, only his money, and he was smart enough to realize it ... but it was too late, they were married, and he couldn't take the scandal of a divorce. And so he took mistresses, and spent all of the time he could away from her. And she wasn't happy, either, because their daughter ... was so utterly unlike her, that she couldn't find any way to live the youth she'd given up through her. And so she decided to hate her, for not being just like her."_

_"Nodoka ... that's awful ... I -"_

_"Ah, but the story doesn't end there. You interrupted the best part. You see, because she hated her, and because she didn't want to have to deal with her, the woman sent her daughter far away, to a private school that she could only afford because her husband was very rich. And there, the daughter met wonderful, brave, funny, smart friends. And so it didn't matter so much that her family was just a lie ... because her friends were the truth._

_"See? It's a better story than you thought, isn't it?"_

"Oh, god," Yue said, when she could talk again. "Oh, god, Nodoka, I am so sorry, I ... I didn't know, I forgot all of that, I can't believe ... and I thought you'd be happy, because you had a family." The tears were flowing freely again. "I left you with that. I really am the worst ..."

"No," Nodoka said softly as she sat down before her. "You're not. You have a long way to go before you become that."

For a long while, they just sat there. Then Yue drew in a shuddering breath. "Are you going to use the other charm now?" she asked.

Nodoka looked down at her left hand. The sinister, it was called in Latin. And she closed her eyes. "I think ... I will save this for some other time," she said.

"I guess neither of us is the worst, then," Yue said, still struggling with the tears.

"I guess not," Nodoka agreed.

"... we are so weird!" Yue cried out, laughing through them.

"Yes we are," Nodoka agreed.

At that very moment, the door swung open and Collette walked in briskly, saying, "Okay, sleepyheads, up and ahhhhh." The strangled gasp ending the sentence was occasioned, as such often are, by the sight of two girls naked as the day they were born sitting very close to each other on a bed. The fact that she had often seen one of those girls naked (and in fact very much enjoyed that particular sight) didn't help much.

"Um, Collette, knocking? It's, it's the done thing," said Yue, blushing terribly.

"Well, yes, but I didn't, you weren't supposed to be ... okay, backing up slowly now," Collette announced, retreating and closing the door. A moment later, there was a firm knock on the door. "Okay, sleepyheads, up and at 'em," collette's voice rang out with false cheerfulness. "Headmistress wants to speak with both of you, as soon as possible. So, um, if you by chance to be naked ... together ... hurry up and, well, get dressed."

"You know," said Nodoka faintly. "That honestly doesn't happen very often at Mahora. For all the involuntary nudity that happens when Negi-sensei is around, people usually don't walk in on other people when they're naked. Does this happen very often here at Ariadne?"

"I ... would really rather not talk about it," said Yue.

* * *

Another time, another land.

"Okay, still not too clear about why Arika-sama has your distrust-aru," Ku Fei opined.

She, Haruna and Satomi were all seated in the Research Institute's cafeteria, mostly deserted at the moment. The local fare didn't come close to being as good as you could get at Chao Bao Zi, and the portions were so small, too. But it was what was available.

"It's just, well, what do we really know about her?" Haruna asked, rhetorically. Once again, she cursed her honorable nature. It would be so easy if she could just pretend that she hadn't promised not to reveal anyone's dark secrets. She wouldn't have to just hint around things, then. Cursed Saotome honor!

"Well," said Ku Fei, slowly and deliberately, "We know that she is Negi-sensei's mother, we know that she is Negi-sensei's father's wife, we know that she is a Princess and later a Queen, we know that -"

"Okay, those are just, you know, descriptions. They don't tell you anything," Haruna interrupted.

"- that she saved a lot of people when Ostia is destroyed," Ku Fei conintued.

"All right, let's talk about that one. What if we're wrong about that? What if she's really a villain with good publicity?"

"But she doesn't. Rather, she has very bad publicity-aru," Ku Fei explained, as though speaking to a small child.

"Well, maybe she deserves it, then!" Haruna said angrily. _She has sex with her children! And encourages other people to do the same!_ Simple, to the point, bound to get everyone who wasn't a complete monster on her side! Cursed Saotome honor!

Ku Fei stared at her, then turned to look at Satomi with a perplexed expression. "Help?" she said.

Satomi, seated at the end of the table between the two of them, shrugged and smiled cutely. "I'm just enjoying being the least socially maladroit person in the room for once."

"Eh?" said Ku Fei.

"Look, how about this? How do we really know that the person who claims to be Arika actually is? Maybe she's, I don't know, some kind of doppelganger? Or just an imposter?"

"Can I take this one?" Satomi asked.

"Oh please thank you," Ku Fei replied, shaking her head.

"If she's an imposter, she has managed to fool Negi-sensei, Takahata-sensei, Headmaster Konoemon, that Ku:Nel Sanders person who was apparently one of Nagi-sama's friends, Evangeline-san, and probably a few other cautious and moderately paranoid people," Satomi observed methodically. "Why do you think that you are more likely to spot a fake than these people?"

"This isn't about me," Haruna said angrily.

"Only you seem to have the problem-aru," Ku pointed out.

"Maybe that is the problem-aru!" Haruna replied ... then froze. "Agh, you've got me doing it now!" she cried out as she collapsed on the tabletop.

Ku Fei opened her mouth to deliver a stinging remark about imitating her dialect. She stopped dead, head tilting to one side, then pulled her pactio card and set it to her head. "Yes, Negi-bouzu?" she said. Then, "In Research Center cafeteria, with Hakase-san and Paru-san. No, pretty deserted. Oh. Oh, you can do that? How cool! Okay, right away."

She took the card away from her head and held it parallel to the ground. "Summon?" she said, making it more of a question than a command. The tone, apparently, didn't matter. A summoning circle drawn in pure light appeared just an inch above the floor, and a moment later, Negi appeared within it, dressed in his usual sweatshirt and jeans with his staff in hand.

The only other group of people in the cafeteria, a small group of physics grad students, looked up when that happened. When it became clear that all that had transpired was a molecular transposition, rather than anything non-trivial, they went back to discussing strategies for finding the Higgs boson.

"Thank you, Chairman Ku. Hello, Haruna-san. Excuse me, Satomi-san, but do you mind if I borrow this space for an important meeting?" Negi asked briskly.

Hakase blinked. "Well, I really don't think you need to ask me for permission, but -"

"Oh good," Negi said, not waiting for the rest of Satomi's statement. He pulled out an entire deck of cards from somewhere, and began to sort through it carefully. "Yuna-san is in Amsterdam. Shiori-san is in Ariadne, presumably. Nodoka-san and Yue-san ... um. And Chachamaru-san ... isn't available." He avoided looking at Satomi as he muttered that. "I really wish Akira-san would accept one, but ... well, here we go anyway." He held out a card and said, in a far more confident tone than Ku had used, "Summon!"

Again with the tracery on the ground, and this time Asuna appeared over it, dressed in jeans and a blouse. She smiled warmly at Negi before noticing Haruna staring at the two of them. She shot the manga artist a warning glance before sitting down beside Ku. Haruna kept her mouth shut, her lips pinched, but she was clearly disapproving. Neither of them noticed Satomi clearly noticing this interplay.

One by one, Negi called those of his pactio partners he could reach to him. Konoka and Setsuna were first after Asuna, followed by Chisame. It was readily apparent to everyone there that none of these three seemed very happy; Chisame, in particular, looked like she'd reverted to the way she'd been at the start of her second year, with a perpetual frown on her face. She was also walking a bit gingerly. But then Kaede, looking as serene as ever, came through, as did slyly smiling Asakura and ever-cheerful Makie. Things went back to unhappy when Ako stepped out of the circle, blushing brightly as she looked at Negi, and sat down beside Chisame on Haruna's side of the table.

That left a single card in Negi's hand. Haruna frowned as she went over the list of pactios in her head. Whose was -

"Summon," said Negi.

"Greetings, gentles all," said Ayaka a moment later, dressed in a long red dress with a bracelet with a polychromatic gem on her right arm. The blissful smile on her face had Asuna facepalming and muttering to herself. For her part, Chisame's jaw dropped and she stared openly.

"Iincho!" said Makie, getting up out of her seat with a big smile. "You did it! I'm so happy for you!" Then her face went ... well, what would be called fierce in anyone else. "But I won't lose to you!"

"Mm-hm, you go right on telling yourself that, Makie-san," Ayaka said, winking at Chisame, whose face took on a genuinely horrified look. Haruna's expression slowly took on the same look as she looked back and forth between them.

"Um, aren't you supposed to say, I won't lose to you either?" Makie asked, blinking audibly.

"I don't think we have time for comedy routines, do we sensei?" Ayaka said as she delicately slid into a seat at the table.

"No, we really don't. Satomi-san, could I please take your seat for a moment? Thank you," Negi said as Hakase got up wordlessly, with a brief glance in Haruna's direction. "All right, some of you already know much of this, but not all of you do, so I'm going to summarize recent events. A few days ago, Nodoka-san went to Ma- Evangeline-san's home ..."

* * *

"We have authorization to send a small force to Mundus Vetus in pursuit of Tsukuyomi," Seras said, seated behind a desk just as large as the one in Headmaster Konoemon's office, chin resting on her interaced fingers. "Yue-san, in light of your background, I would very much appreciate it if you would assume the role of liaison officer between that force and the authorities at Mahora. Can I rely on you for this?"

"Yes, ma'am," Yue answered, since there was literally no other answer to such a question.

"Good. Miyazaki-san, I realize that your mission takes priority, but I would be very much in your debt if you would assist my people in acclimating to Mundus Vetus before resuming it."

"I will do what I can, Seras-sama," Nodoka said, trying not to show how relieved she was that the fiction of the mission was holding up. "But there's something I think you need to know. This is a glimpse inside Tsukuyomi's mind." She lifted up her Diarum and spoke the word, "Transcribere". A piece of parchment extended from it, with a copy of the most recent entry in the book of thoughts. She handed it to Seras, who produced her reading glasses to examine it in silence.

"I see," she said.

"Would he -" Nodoka started to ask.

"The question you are about to ask," Seras interrupted sharply, "could easily be construed as a slander, which is a dangerous thing to say in a society where duels to the death are reasonably common, Miyazaki-san."

Nodoka flinched. "I'm sorry, ma'am. But I am more afraid of what that person will do to my friends and my home than of what that other person will do if he ever gets ahold of me," she said.

Seras looked at her for a moment, then smiled. "What brave new world," she murmured. "I will have those who can safely ask that question do so."

"Um, pardon my impertinence, ma'am, but who will you be sending to Ear- Mundus Vetus," Yue asked.

"I think I will send Selene and her team, or possibly four three two one," Seras counted down softly.

On one, the door burst open and Emily Sevensheep strode in bearing God's anger. " _I protest!_ " she shouted. "Ma'am, with all due respect, I protest _in the strongest possible terms_ the notion that _anyone_ other than my team and I should be sent on this mission. We have our _honor_ to think of! Shall it be said that we allowed such a _dangerous fugitive_ to escape from our _righteous justice_ , and then shifted the burden of her pursuit to another? _I say thee nay_ , Headmaster!"

"All right, then," Seras said cheerfully. "You're on detached duty for the next two weeks. Needless to say, any minor mistakes you make will be on your permanent record. Be sure to keep a good record of your expenses. Now, if you would please wait outside with Miyazaki-san. I have to have a few words in private with Yue-san."

"Yes, ma'am. This way, Miyazaki," Emily said smartly as she marched a willing Nodoka out and shut the door behind them.

"You enjoyed that," Yue said before Seras could say anything.

"Tricking someone into volunteering for the mission I intended to assign them anyway, while they were listening at the door? Quite. The pleasures of this job are few and far between, Yue-san, as I suspect you'll learn for yourself one day. Be that as it may. She restored your memories, didn't she?" Seras asked with a gentle smile.

"I said Earth instead of Mundus Vetus, didn't I?" Yue asked, shaking her head. "Silly of me. Yes. Ma'am ... I swore an oath, and I think it binds me ... but I'm not sure if I'm the person who swore that oath anymore."

Seras nodded. "I expected this to happen eventually. Yue-san. When you are sure of who you are, one way or another, come tell me. Then we'll decide what has to happen. Right now, though, one of the people you might be is one of my valiant ones. So I will trust that person to the very limit. And whoever that person is, she was always you, Yue-san."

Yue swallowed. "Permission to approach and hug the Headmaster?"

"Granted."

A moment later, Yue walked out of the door to find only Nodoka waiting there. "Emily-san went away after telling me that she wouldn't lose and saying, 'Oh, Jesu, she's done it to me again, hasn't she,'. Is she -" Nodoka asked hesitantly.

"Yes," Yue said wearily. "And Collette. And Beatrix, though I think she views me primarially as a rival for Emily's affections, such as they are. Which doesn't stop the wondering gazes she directs at me every now and again."

"This is so unfair. I didn't get a harem, why did you?" Nodoka said, pouting.

"I'm cuter than you are. Ask anyone," Yue answered stoically.

They stared at each other for a moment before breaking into helpless giggles.

"So weird," Yue murmured.

* * *

"Oh god, oh god, oh god," Haruna repeated, face in her hands.

"So, I take it that we can skip asking whether you saw this coming?" asked Asakura, eyebrow raised.

"No! I, I knew she was hurting, but I ... oh god." Haruna lifted her head. "Even when we had dinner together, yesterday, there were hints, and I could have - oohhhhhhh."

"So could I," Konoka said sadly. _Something is_ really _wrong with me ..._

"Haruna-san, Konoka-san, please, you mustn't blame yourselves," Negi said earnestly. "I had a chance to talk to her before she ever launched this scheme, and I should have seen the signs then. But I didn't, and now we're all paying the price. If it's anyone's fault -"

"It's Nodoka's fault," Ayaka interrupted. "Maybe we could've stopped her, but she's as responsible as any of us."

"I hate to say it, but I'm with iincho. Anyway, assigning blame can wait until we fix this," Asuna said. "What do we do, Negi?"

"Well, I think we're going to need to do some sort of grid search of the whole grounds of the campus, and possibly the town," Negi said. "Chamo-kun went off to search for the portal Nodoka-san's planning to use, but he hasn't reported back. It's possible that he's fallen prey to some misadventure."

"Um ... sensei, I don't think that's it," said Ako hesitantly. "I saw him running off with his suitcases."

Negi blinked. "That doesn't make sense," he said. "Why would he take suitcases with him on a short expedition like this?"

" _Are you kidding me?_ " Chisame shrieked, startling those around her. "Negi, he's ditching you! He's gotten all the value he can out of the relationship, and now he's going to ..." She trailed off as she saw the shocked expression on Negi's face, then coughed, and looked away. "Of course this is all just my opinion," she said in a gruff voice.

_Since when,_ thought Ako confusedly, _does Chisame engage in yobisute with Negi-sensei?_

"I can't believe that Chamo-kun would do something like that," Negi said shakily. "He's my, my friend." He drew in a deep breath. "And I won't believe it until I see proof. But right now, we need to focus on finding the portal that Nodoka was going to use, so that we can -"

"You mean the one by the riverside, used by smugglers?" asked Hakase.

Negi's mouth hung open for a few moments. Then he closed it, coughed, turned to look at Satomi. "Chao?" he asked politely.

Satomi nodded. "She used it, and mentioned doing so. I didn't place any importance on it at the time, but -"

"Okay, then," Negi (rather rudely) interrupted. "Did she mention whereabouts along the river it was?"

"There's a cave formation, apparently."

Negi nodded, smiling sweetly. "Thank you, Hakase-san." He turned back to his partners, smile becoming somewhat fixed, and said, in a far louder, flatter voice, "Okay, let's go."

Nobody seemed all that inclined to argue the point, though some were definitely faster to get up and moving than others. It ended up that Chisame was bringing up the rear of the progression, with Ayaka casually walking along beside her. "So exciting! My first mission as Negi-sensei's newest partner seems off to an excellent start," the class representative said enthusiastically.

"You are a sick, disturbed person," Chisame replied.

_Why thank you dear sister,_ Ayaka replied telepathically.

_How could you -_ Chisame ranted in the same communicative mode for a moment before realizing what she was doing. She glared at Ayaka, who silently tapped the bracelet on her wrist.

_I thought we should resolve this quietly, _Ayaka explained. _I don't see why you're surprised, Chisame. I was perfectly willing to share myself with young men willing to pretend to be my little brother, so why in the world would I hesitate to do so with a young man who actually was? It's simple logic.___

_It's disgusting,_ Chisame raged.

_And yet you want it for yourself,_ Ayaka parried.

_I want lots of things that I shouldn't have,_ Chisame snapped.

_I disagree. I think you should have the things you want, as long as they don't harm yourself or others. Where is the harm in this, please?_ Ayaka regarded her silently for a moment. _Chisame, despite everything, I really am quite fond of you. I can't fully explain it, but you remind me of ... well, never mind. The point is, I want you to be with him, and he will want to be with you because he cares about you, and you want to be with him._

_But -_

_'The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself,'_ Ayaka quoted.

Before Chisame could think of a response to that, they arrived at the cave that Satomi had mentioned. Indeed, she could see Satomi walking alongside Negi, pointing it out. She could also see her frowning at him when he wasn't looking right at her. What was that about?

"All right," Negi said after a moment, pitching his voice to carry. "We're going to be heading in very shortly. Since I don't have any idea what to expect, I want all of you to choose a partner to accompany you. Hold on to their hands, do not let go, no matter what."

Chisame watched the pair-ups happen, Makie and Ako quickly taking each other's hand, Konoka and Setsuna oddly hesitant ... but eventually, everyone was paired up except for her. Of course. If Chachamaru had been here, if Chachamaru hadn't betrayed her, she meant ... but there was no one here she was close to except for Negi, and Asuna, of course, had seized his hand immediately. And so -

Ayaka grabbed her hand.

Chisame glowered at her, and, hoping that whatever telepathy the class rep had been using was still working, sent _Just because we had sex, don't go thinking we're friends or anything._

Ayaka rolled her eyes. _That appears to be a refrain when it comes to certain of my sexual partners. Yes, you_ really _remind me of that person._

"All right," Negi said. "Be ready for anything, and don't be afraid to -"

At that very moment, Yue poked her head out of the cave, looking to see if anyone would see if her (technically Emily's) team made their way out of it. When she saw that a rather large number of people, all of whom she knew rather well, were there, she froze.

"- run if it gets very dangerous, and -" Negi continued, oblivious.

"Um, Negi-sensei?" said Yue hesitantly.

"Not now, Yue-san, we have to go to the magical world to ..." Negi trailed off, stood stock still for a moment, then turned to look at her with the same bright smile he'd plastered on while talking to Satomi, earlier. "Hello, Yue-san. Are you well?"

"Quite well, sensei. Um, Nodoka's with me."

"That's good," Negi said placidly.

"That's very good," Ayaka said much less placidly as she let go of Chisame's hand and marched up to the front lines, glaring up at Yue as she did so. "Let's have her come out, then, shall we?"

Hesitantly, Yue stepped all the way out of the cave, followed closely by Nodoka, who flinched at the obvious anger on Ayaka's face, as well as the sight of the majority of Negi's party gathered before her. "I'm very sorry, Iincho," Nodoka began to say.

"Well, that's good," Ayaka interrupted, feigning cheerfulness. "I'm sure that your sorrow will help Chizuru's broken hand mend more quickly. It will really make up for the hours I spent in a cell. It certainly brings into balance the premature end of my first real adventure! Young lady, you have a great deal of explaining to do!"

"We both do, iincho," Yue replied quickly. "And we need to talk to the Headmaster, as soon as possible. You see -"

"This is going to become confusing if you have to call two different people 'iincho'," Emily Sevensheep opined as she marched out of sight, with Collette and Beatrix following close on her heels. "You should call that person by her name or something, Yue. Negi-san, I greet you in the name of Ariadne. I hope that you are well?"

"... it's going to be another one of those days," Negi muttered. His eyes had closed long since.

* * *

Eventually, Negi and Ayaka headed off with the party from Ariadne and Nodoka to speak to Headmaster Konoemon, and the rest of his pactio army went their own ways.

"You see?" said Ku Fei as she walked along with Haruna and Satomi. "Things aren't so gloomy. Everyone shows up when bad things happen. And really, the bad things don't happen all that much. And the thing you complain about most, Yue being gone, is over and done with now. So no worries?"

"It must nice to be you, Ku," Haruna said.

"It is!"

"But this is a Hope Spot, not a happy ending. Things aren't fixed, just ... mended, a little," Haruna continued.

Ku Fei growled and pulled her hair. "Agh. There's no talking to you! Fine, be miserable-aru! I am in a good mood, so will go and play with martial arts club boys. See you next crisis." She strode off, shaking her head.

"I suppose you think I'm nuts, too," Haruna asked Satomi wearily.

"Not qualified for that," Satomi said. "Haruna, I know you don't want to share privileged communications, but if I deduce what's going on, will you confirm it?"

"Oh, why not?" At least she'd be entertained by Hakase's completely off the wall guesses.

"Negi-sensei is having sexual relations with his mother, Asuna, and Ayaka, and possibly with Konoka and Setsuna as well. Am I right?" Satomi waited for a reply as she walked, then looked behind her to see that Haruna had face-faulted.

"So I can take that as a yes, then?"

* * *

"So, Ayaka?" Konoka asked Asuna as she walked with her and Setsuna back to the dorms.

"Don't want to talk about it."

"Honestly, it's about time."

"Konoka," Asuna said warningly.

The door to their room was open when they arrived. Mindful of the new threat of Tsukuyomi, Setsuna went in first, Yuunagi out and ready in her hand. To their relief, however, what they found was something a lot simpler. Arika was seated, fully clothed, on the bottom bunk, looking up with a frown on her face at Eishun, also fully dressed and carrying his suitcase in one hand.

"Daddy?" asked Konoka with surprise. "What's -"

"Arika-san and I were just having a little discussion," he said, brusquely. "It's not important. Konoka, Setsuna ... I need to return to Kyoto, there are matters that await my attention that can't wait any longer." He sighed, looked at them for a moment before continuing. "If you still can't forgive me for hiding the truth from you for all these years, then I'm sorry, but I'll have to learn to live without your forgiveness. Do you forgive me, Setsuna?" he asked.

Setsuna flinched under his gaze. "It's, it's not my place to forgive or deny you forgiveness," she said, not looking at him. It was awful. She'd not felt this ashamed while coupling with him.

"I disagree," Eishun said heavily. "But never mind that now. Do you forgive me, Konoka?" he asked, turning to look at her.

She looked away. "... yes ..." she whispered, almost too quietly to hear.

"Very well. Thank you. It may be some time before I can see either of you again, so I'll just leave you with the knowledge that the fact that I am proud of both of my daughters has not changed. I just wish you'd give me more to be proud about, that's all. Asuna-kun, it's been nice seeing you. Good-bye, Arika-san," he said, and there was a lot of hardness in his tone.

Arika nodded shortly, and the elder of the East walked out without looking back.

"I, I should probably go and see whether Mana needs any help cleaning up our room, with Rakan-san staying there and all," Setsuna said into the silence that fell, backing away.

"... forgive me," Konoka said quietly.

"Eh?" Setsuna said.

"I said, please say that you forgive me," she said, much louder, turning to look at her with tears running down her face. "I've ... oh, Setchan, please, even if you don't, I need to hear you say it, and -"

"Konoka!" Setsuna shouted, grabbing hold of her shoulders. "Stop it! Of course I forgive you!" The firmness of her tone eased a bit. "I just wish I understood why you do things that make my forgiveness so necessary!"

Konoka stared at her, then collapsed against her chest. "I finally got you to say my name," she said, weeping.

Asuna had sat down beside Arika to watch this unfold. "So ... can I ask what happened with -"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"Sheesh, that's your answer to just about everything."

"Not true. A good third of the time my answer to things is, let's have sex." She nodded at Konoka and Setsuna. "A good beginning on their part. With a little bit of work, they might make a good addition to the harem."

"Okay, I'm not so crazy about this harem notion," Asuna objected.

"What about 'I love to watch you -'," Arika asked, eyebrow raised.

"That's a different thing," Asuna answered.

"Oh really."

"Did you want Nagi-san to have a harem?"

"That's a different thing."

"Oh really."

* * *

Eishun took a taxi to the train station and bought his ticket, wondering all the while how many years of purification it would take to make him feel clean again. Whether any amount would do. Heedless of these concerns, nature called him. He stepped into the washroom to answer it, and then went over to wash his hand, leaning over the basin to do so.

When he looked up, the mirror showed him Tsukuyomi standing behind him, smiling.

There was a second of panic, and then everything went black.

**Next:** Satomi.


	26. Chamo

"Don't you dare judge me, you bastard!" Chamo screamed at the top of his tiny lungs as he grabbed the bartender by his tie and yanked him down so they were face to face. "You haven't been where I have! You haven't seen the things that I've been made to see! Anyone would have run! **Anyone!** "

"Hey, buddy, calm down!" said the barkeep. "All I asked was, 'what'll it be?' You sound pretty guilty for someone who only did what —"

"Shaddap!" Chamo roared. "I'll have some Hoeneken. _In a clean glass!_ "

"Why the hell would they be dirty?" the barkeep asked, then held up his hands in a gesture of surrender when Chamo barred his teeth.

Chamo sat on the bar, waiting for his order, clearly having some sort of subvocalized conversation with himself, occasionally making forceful gestures, in the fashion of one trying to persuade himself of his own rightness.

Eventually, he noticed that one of the people sitting next to him was staring. How annoying. There were few enough bars who catered to the magical crowd here in Japan, so why did he have to wander into the only one with people who liked to rubberneck.

"You got a problem, buddy?" he snapped.

"Yes, " said the old man with glasses. "But as a matter of fact, I believe that one of my problems has just resolved itself." He took off the glasses, and abruptly Chamo realized that his eyes were of two different colors.

Just like two particular women of his acquaintance.

"Aw crap, " Chamo said, just before the hand closed around his body.


	27. Satomi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter features an appearance by a character from Haruse Hiroki's charming slice-of-very-strange-life manga, _Zoushoku Shoujo Plana-chan!_

"So ... Setsuna and Konoka are sisters?" Satomi asked flatly.

She and Haruna had made their way to her private laboratory. After Haruna had recovered from the shock of Satomi's correct guess (or deduction, as Satomi put it) she had finally poured out all the secrets she'd been carrying around for the last week as the mad scientist listened patiently. Satomi had asked a few questions to clarify matters. That was one of them.

"Yes, and they're still intimate," Haruna explained wearily. "Actually, Konoka is a borderline nympho. I don't know whether that's her own fault, or whether that Arika woman is a bad influence, or what's going on. I want to think that it's Arika's fault, because, like I said, she's the one who's doing stuff with her own kids, but then again, so are Konoka and Yuna's dads, so ... it's just a disturbing mess."

Haruna let out a sigh as she leaned back against the white board she'd used to draw out the relationship diagram. She was probably getting marker ink on her sweater, but she honestly couldn't find it in her to care. "You have no idea what a relief it is to get this off my chest," she said. "If I hadn't told someone, I probably would have snapped. I've been having all these disturbing dreams. There was this alternate version of me who didn't care and ... well, that's not important right now."

She realized that Satomi was staring fixedly at her from where she was sitting on the stool in front of her desk.

"What?" asked Haruna, confused by the stare.

"Setsuna and Konoka are sisters," Satomi repeated, in the same flat tone.

Haruna blinked. "Yes," she said loudly. "You've asked that three times, now. Why do you keep coming back to it? Frankly, the daddy/daughter stuff is a lot more -"

"I keep coming back to it because it's the one thing about this whole situation that makes the least amount of sense. It's the least plausible part of anything you've said."

Now Haruna was staring. "Are you saying I made it up or -"

"No, that's not what I'm saying," Hakase said, holding up a hand and waving it in negation. "I accept that you believe what you're saying. I accept that you are relating what you were told. But the plural of anecdote isn't evidence, and reality doesn't care what anyone believes about it."

"You've completely lost me," Haruna informed her.

Satomi rubbed her head. "Okay. According to you, Konoka's father, Konoe Eishun, had a relationship with a youkai of the bird tribe who eventually gave birth to Setsuna. That's the story you're telling me. Do you really not see the problem with that story?"

"Oh, so you don't believe in hanyou?" Haruna frowned. "Come off it, Hakase, you had to have seen Set-chan's wings during the festival. And anyway, what about that reality doesn't care stuff you just said?"

"You're not understanding me, Haruna," Satomi said, getting up off her bench. "I accept that something that people call magic exists, and that there are a lot more things I don't know about now. But that realization is not a license to chuck out roughly twenty-six hundred years of reason and rationality. I will use the tools available to me to understand and explore this new world. I will _not_ cast aside previous understandings of how the world works simply because some things seem to contradict them. Rather, I will try to see whether these contradictory elements can be explained, and then, if they cannot, I will modify my theories. That is how you do science - by being open-minded but skeptical."

Haruna stared at her for a moment, then applauded delicately.

"Okay, fine. That was a bit melodramatic on my part," Satomi allowed. "Would you be impressed if I were to tell you that my understanding of the situation indicates that Setsuna and Konoka are not and cannot be related to each other?"

"If you could prove that, I'd be thrilled," Haruna said. "Frankly, if you did that, no joke, I'd kiss you!"

"That would be inconsistent with your professed repugnance for incest, but never mind that now. I will try to prove it. I might not, but nobody will be more surprised than -"

"Wait, what?" Haruna snapped.

Satomi flinched. _Crap._ "I was really hoping this would never come up," she said.

"Are we, I dunno, cousins?" Haruna asked. I mean, as far as I know, my dad's an only child, and my mom ... doesn't talk about her family, so -"

"No, we're not cousins." Satomi sighed. "Okay. Short version. Fifteen years ago, my mother was researching extraordinary claims about martial arts, and so she went to the Nerima ward where a number of unusual practitioners reside, as you well know. Most of them weren't interested in helping her, but she found who was willing to do so in exchange for a few meals at her expense. One thing led to another. Mother realized that she'd made a terrible mistake and abandoned the project, and, on discovering that she was pregnant, decided not to have an abortion but rather raise the child alone. It says something about mother's sense of humor that she gave me a name reminiscent of my biological father's family name. Satomi. Saotome."

"Are you serious?" Haruna asked, having gone pale as soon as the words mother and Nerima were mentioned.

"Generally, and specifically, yes." She tapped the frame of her glasses. "We both got his eyes. Not color. Strength."

"Oh, dad. I can't believe he cheated on mom while she was pregnant with me. Or rather ... yes, I _can_ , actually. Ohhhhh." Haruna rubbed her forehead.

"This is not really pertinent to our present situation," Satomi said, looking around. "Where did I put my - ah, there you are."

She bent down to pull a silver suitcase out from under her desk. "This is the evidence collection kit I put together in the event I was ever asked to consult with the local crime scene investigators," she explained as she opened it.

"In the event that you - I'm sorry, I forgot who I was talking to for a moment, there," Haruna said, recovering quickly.

Just a bit miffed at that - It could happen! - Satomi pulled a pair of DNA swabs out and held them out to Haruna. "I need you to get samples from Setsuna and Konoka. A simple swab of the inside of their cheek should do so. Once you have the sample, pull the swab back into chamber so that it'll remain fresh. While you're doing that, I'll be arranging the use of a PCR analysis machine and consulting with some people. Does anyone else know about this?"

Haruna blinked as she took the swabs. "Um ... actually, last night, when they came to stay in my room - separate beds, so lower your damn eyebrow - they mentioned that when they took Chizuru-san to the hospital, she told them that she knew they were related. Just by looking at them."

Satomi nodded. "Okay, I'll talk with her. That's all for now. Better get cracking, the longer you wait, the longer until we get our results."

Still a little shocked by the discovery of a half-sibling of her own, Haruna forebore from making any comments about cracking as she headed off.

For a moment, Satomi was alone. That's when she smiled. She finally had a mystery to solve! They'd all thought she was mad, to hope for something like this to happen! Now she'd show those fools at the institute! (In this case, the institute was her elementary school.) **Bwahahahaha!**

She wasn't gauche enough to laugh out loud, of course.

* * *

"Tadaima," said Negi as he came through the door to his room, and walked in to find Konoka, Setsuna, Asuna and his mother all fully clothed, sitting and talking easily with each other. He was very relieved to see that the tensions between the four of them seemed to be easy at the moment ... and just a bit relieved to see the fully clothed part. Honestly, while sex was very exciting, the distraction that it caused was beginning to worry him.

"Welcome back, Negi-kun. What happened with Grandpa?" asked Konoka.

"Well, considering the circumstances, Konoemon-sensei was very happy to accept the offer of the students from Ariadne. They'll be patrolling starting tomorrow morning, looking high and low for Tsukuyomi-san. Her description is also being circulated to all the magical teachers, with a 'Do Not Approach' warning. They will also be stepping up patrols."

"We should do patrols too," Asuna said. "Did you let him know that -"

"I took the liberty of volunteering Ala Alba's services," Negi confirmed, and braced himself. This was one of the parts of this that he didn't expect to enjoy. "The headmaster declined the offer."

"Eh?" chorused Asuna, Konoka and Setsuna. Arika nodded as though it were to be expected. That was a relief. He only had to explain it to three short-tempered women.

"The headmaster explained that since we're still on summer break for the rest of the week, it would be irresponsible - his words, not mine - of him to ask for help from students. He also told me that the other magical students, like Misora-san, Takane-san and her partners, won't be helping either. Just the teachers. And I am also not participating in those patrols."

"But that's crazy!" Asuna protested. "We have more real-world experience than most of those -"

"Asuna!" Negi interrupted, raising his voice just a little. He'd been right. He didn't enjoy this at all. "That's what the Headmaster told me. Do you want to know what I figured out for myself?" He looked at her sharply.

Asuna subsided, biting her lower lip and looking at him with obvious unhappiness.

 _I'd rather you were unhappy than dead, my dearest,_ he thought, and then continued. "Who is Tsukuyomi-san targeting, Asuna? What was almost the first thing that Yue told us?"

"She's after me, but -" And then Asuna, even though she was Asuna, got it. "Oh. Ohhhhh," she said, upset at herself, now.

"That's right. If it doesn't make sense for me to go to Evangeline-san's house if she's trying to capture me, it also doesh't make sense to do things that will make it easier for Tsukuyomi-san to get at you, like having you wandering around patrolling. It is wiser and safer to have you in a single secure location, surrounded by people you know and trust who have a lot of real-world experience."

Asuna looked at Setsuna, who nodded shortly. She made a disgusted noise. "Okay," she said. "I see the point. I don't like it, but I'll lump it."

"It's the right thing to do, Asuna," Arika told her, resting a hand on her thigh. "You need to learn patience, or your enemies will try to kill you with your own impatience. You can't afford any weaknesses, dear."

Asuna grunted, then smiled wanly. "So did your enemies ever try to kill you with sex-craziness?"

"Yes," Arika said, dead serious. "Would you like to hear stories?"

"No, no, I think we could all live without that, don't you?" Asuna said briskly, and the consensus of the room quickly agreed with her.

"What about Nodoka-chan and Yue-chan?" Konoka asked, wanting to change the subject and curious about her club-mates.

That was the other part he didn't expect to enjoy. "Well, Konoemon-sensei wasn't very happy about what he heard. So, well, Nodoka-san will have to write a formal essay on why what she did was a bad thing, and Yue-san is also being punished for dropping out like she did by the same means." Deep breath. "And they're also restricted from club activities for the rest of the school year."

"But that means -" Konoka said, then stopped dead.

"Yes, the Library Exploration Club is probably shut down for the rest of the year, too." Negi sighed. "I'm very, very sorry, Konoka-san. You should know that Ayaka didn't want this. She actually asked for leniency when she realized that things were heading this way, but ... maybe in a month or so, you'll be able to get the restriction lifted," he said, without sounding very confident.

"Okay," Konoka said, sadly. "Negi-kun, please let me tell Pal this? I ... I'm afraid of how she'll react if it comes from you." Asuna nodded vigorously.

He found that puzzling, but didn't press for details. "So, anyway, Emily-san and Beatrix-san are going to be staying in Haruna-san's room while they're here, with Collete-san in the same room as Yue-san and Nodoka-san. I'm sure that you'll all make them very welcome."

A series of nods followed.

After a moment of silent reflection, Setsuna turned to look at Asuna. "Um, Asuna-san, there's something you and I need to talk about in private. It might be a bit risky under the circumstances, but, well ..." Setsuna trailed off, and glanced at Negi embarrassedly.

"Um, I don't think you should be asking me this ... but Setsuna, I trust you, absolutely, with Asuna's safety," he told her, looking as serious as possible.

"Me too," said Asuna quickly. "With my safety. I mean."

"Okay, then," Setsuna said, looking cutely awkward. "There's something I want to show you. Will you come with me?"

"Sure," Asuna replied, not realizing the odd look they were getting from Konoka. "Right now?"

"No time like the present. We'll be back ... in a bit. If there's any trouble, we'll contact you by telepathy," she said to Negi as she got up and led a mystified looking Asuna out of the room.

"Do you have any idea -" Negi asked Konoka.

"Nope," said Konoka. "None at all." She was smiling brightly in a way that suggested that further inquiries would not be welcome.

"All right," Negi said, just a little spooked.

"In that case, Konoka-san, you might want to go find Haruna-san and tell her the bad news before rumor carries it to her. So that you can console her. For a while," Arika suggested, firmly.

Konoka blinked, then coughed. "Ah, yes, I'll go do that."

"Please tell her how sorry I am, Konoka-san," Negi said as she walked towrds the door.

"I'll do that," Konoka said, and then she was gone.

"That was just a little rude, don't you think?" Negi started to say to his mother.

"Perhaps, but lately, I find myself somewhat impatient," Arika said, getting up and walking over to him. "My son, from what I am told, you are familiar with the uses of these?" she said, holding up a bottle of age-changing pills.

"Oh, yes, I've used these quite a few times."

"Very well." She handed him the bottle. "I would then ask you to take one and assume the semblance of a fifteen year old."

"Well, all right," Negi said, and obeyed his mother at once. Fortunately, the age increase pills also caused ones clothes to expand with one.

"Thank you. The purpose of this exercise, then, is to permit me to, as your sister might put it, establish some freaking ephebophilia." She took Negi's somewhat larger face between her hands. "Negi, I love you regardless of how you look ... but I admit that I will feel more comfortable as your lover when you are as old as you look now. For at this size, I need neither bend so far nor kneel to do this." She kissed him passionately and forcefully.

To Negi, it felt strange. The tangible illusion in which he was surrounded conveyed the sensation of being touched, but there was a minute but perceptible delay between the stimulus and his awareness of it. The sensation of his mother's lips on his own was different from the way that it felt when he was in his natural form. It wasn't bad, just ... different.

So too was the sensation he felt as she reached with one hand to stroke him there. She pulled back, and there was a smile on her face. "Ah. You have grown." With one hand, she undid the button of his pants - he'd stopped wearing his belt recently - slid down the zipper, and reached in. He groaned softly as she took him in hand.

"This exercise will involve only fellatio and intercourse," Arika explained. "While in this state you have the size to better develop technique with paizuri, I have, I think, explained to you that paizuri is - what?" Her eyes stared deeply into his own.

Oh, a test. "Primarially a way for a woman to satisfy a man, rather than anything she will voluntarily enjoy," he repeated from memory. "In some cases, it might even be used simply as a way for a man to assert dominance over a woman. But, ma'am, don't women generally enjoy cunnilingus?"

"Yes, that is quite true, and it's praiseworthy that you remember that," she said as she slid his suspenders off his shoulders and let his pants fall. "But we are engaging in absolute minimal foreplay on this occasion. I am or will be sufficiently lubricated by the time arrives for you to penetrate my cunt." He noted again, as she dropped down to one knee in front of him, the odd dichotomy of her normally precise words and the blunt words she used for the genitalia. But she had taken him into her mouth, and it was hard to think about such matters.

He grew harder as her lips, teeth and tongue moved up and down him. She was beyond any doubt the most skilled fellatrix of his admittedly limited experience, Negi decided as he ran his fingers through her hair. After only a few moments, he was as hard as ever; harder, actually, if the sensations of the disguise were to be trusted. Arika pulled back and rose to her feet, one hand wrapping around his hardness as she started pushing him towards the bunkbeds. "Lift my skirt, please," she said.

Unsteadily, as he backed up, he reached down slowly hiked up the skirt that stretched down to her ankles until its hemline was up around her hips. This revealed that she was wearing garters and stockings, but no panties. That done, she paused, then slowly turned them both around so that she was backing towards the bunkbeds and - gently, ever gently - pulling him with them. She pulled him - still gently - with her as she sat down on the bottom bunk. Their distance between their hips closed, and she firmly guided his hardness -

"Are you thinking of this as a hardness?" she asked abruptly.

"Um," he answered, not wanting to lie.

"What is this?" she asked, squeezing slightly.

"That is ... my cock," he answered.

"And this?" she asked, spreading her lower lips.

"That ... is the cunt I came out of," Negi answered.

"Almost correct. It is the cunt you will soon cum into again," Arika answered. And then she pushed, and pulled, and guided, and his cock was in her cunt.

"Do it now. Do it hard. Do it long," she told him.

And he did, pumping back and forth, hands on her sides as he pushed up and into her, as her legs came up and crossed behind his rear to pull him in further. He managed a respectable ten minutes before his breathing changed, telling her that he was fighting off orgasm.

"Do not fight it. Give in to it, give it into me, give me my grandchildren -" his mother told him, working him like a pump with her muscles below.

"Wait, what? gasped Negi.

"Give me your children -" Pump.

"But, but I'm not sure that I'm ready to be a father at my age!" Negi protested.

"Nor was I happy about becoming a mother at your age, but we don't -" Pump. "- always get -" Pump. "-what we want!" Pump, pump, pump. "Now cum!"

And he did, and though she had not achieved climax, it was no matter. The pleasure was intellectual, now, as she reached down with her extrasenses to feel the sperm fertilizing her ovae ...

She felt nothing. Well, not nothing. She felt wet. Something was wrong. He collapsed on her, breathing heavily, and all she could think was, _something is wrong._

* * *

Out in the hallway, Konoka found herself trudging. She didn't like trudging. She didn't like being in the sort of moood where one trudges. In moods where one trudged, she tended to do things that she was beginning to realize weren't good for her relationships with others.

But ...

_Asuna. Setsuna. Ayaka, even. Meanwhile, I am Konoka-san, still. He's seen me naked. But I'm Konoka-san._

_Maybe I ought to -_

_No! That's how you got into this mess in the first place!_ said the little angel on her right shoulder, in a tinny version of Konoka's own voice. _You need to be good and kind and pure! Especially pure! Otherwise, Set-chan won't like you anymore, and then neither will anyone else! Don't pay any attention to what that awful devil on your left shoulder tells you!_

But it didn't seem right to just dismiss the other side, so she looked down to her left shoulder. There was no one there.

 _What? Where's the devil gotten to?_ asked the little angel.

 _I'm right behind you,_ said the little devil, in a sultry version of Konoka's voice.

 _Ahh!_ said the little angel. And then proceeded to make several other noises indicating either distress or great pleasure. Konoka wasn't sure which.

 _... maybe I need some more sleep,_ she decided. _Yes, sleep ... alone._

She was approaching Haruna's room when Haruna herself ran down the hallway towards her. "Konoka! Great! Just the person I wanted to see! Open your mouth please?"

Konoka did so to say the word "Why?" but the first syllable was all that she got out before Haruna popped some sort of brush into her mouth and began rubbing the side of her cheek with its soft head. Since this was far from the strangest thing she'd had in her mouth recently, Konoka didn't really object, though she was confused.

After a few moments, Haruna pulled the swab back and followed Hakase's directions to the letter. "Okay, one down, one to go. Where's Setsuna?"

Still bewildered as ever, Konoka shook her head. "I don't know, she went off with Asuna for some sort of private conversation. Haruna, what -"

"Oh, okay, then she'll probably go _there_ , then," Haruna said, nodding.

"'There'?" Konoka asked.

"Now, Konoka, there's no point in someone having a private place where they go to be alone and contemplate the meaning of existence if everyone knows about it," Haruna said.

"But you know," she pointed out, quite reasonably she thought.

"That's different. I know all kinds of things that people would really prefer that I not tell about them," Haruna said, and there was just a hint of menace in her tone. "Sometimes all the secrets make me just a little bit crazy," she added. Not a hint, a walkthrough of menace.

"Okay, then," Konoka said placatingly as she backed off. "Um ... something you should know about Nodoka and Yue's punishment -"

"They're banned from club activities and so the Library Exploration Club is effectively on life support, right?" Haruna asked briskly.

Konoka stared. "Has anyone ever said that you're really very smart?"

"Not often enough. I figured that was going to happen. Oh well, no great loss, right? After all, everyone has moved on to other things. Right?" The tone of Haruna's voice gave the lie to her words.

She swallowed. "R-right," Konoka said, hesitantly. "Um, another thing ... they've decided to put two of the girls from Ariadne in your room."

Again, Haruna seemed calm about this. "Makes sense, I'm the only one in a three person dorm room who has both spare rooms open, as far as I know, and I already know about the magical world, so I guess I'm the logical choice. Any more good news?"

"No, no news at all," Konoka replied. She wasn't about to confess about being on the outs with her father to Haruna. She'd already told the manga artist far too much already. "Um, listen, I was hoping that I could borrow your room to crash for a little while. would you be okay with that?"

"No problem on my part, and you look really beat. I can't imagine what's been keeping you up nights," Haruna added for just a bit of a zinger. "But ... well, when those two Ariadne girls show up, they're probably going to make a lot of noise moving in."

Konoka let out a low groan. "I can't believe I didn't think of that myself. I must be even worse off than I realized," she said, shaking her head.

Despite everything, sympathy won out in Haruna's jaded heart. "Ah, well, in that case, c'mon, at least we can get you settled in before they - oooor not," she noted, seeing the door to her room partway open. Hesitantly, she pushed it the rest of the way open.

The room beyond was dark, but the windows let in enough light for them to see Emily, her unusual ears hidden by some sort of disguise spell, sitting on the kotatsu as Beatrix gave her a foot massage. "Ah, you're the one they call Saotome, correct?" Emily said. "I'd rise, but my feet are killing me. The distances you Old Worlders have to walk just astounds me."

"You ride broomsticks most places, then?" Haruna asked.

"Only civilized way to travel," Emily replied.

"Mmm," Haruna replied, deciding that she was looking forward to the girl's first encounter with a train. "You could turn on the lights, you know."

"I don't know the procedure. Surely, such an important function will have multiple security measures to prevent -"

Haruna flipped the light switch.

"Or not," Emily said, coughing. Beatrix seemed to be smiling faintly.

"Yeah, this is gonna be fun. This is Konoka, I think you were introduced before?" All three nodded. "Great. She's crashing in my room while I go out and do some stuff, so could you keep it down please? Thanks. I shouldn't be too long." She bent to speak quietly, right into Konoka's ear. "Avoid knocking boots with them, okay?"

"I'm trying to behave!" Konoka hissed in response.

"Well, good. Keep it up." She gave her a thumbs up gesture and departed.

* * *

A little while later, Satomi had just gotten the PCR machine hooked up to her computer so that she'd be able to print the results when Haruna came into her lab with the two swabs and a faintly embarassed look on her face. "Uh, well, I got them."

"Well, good, hand them over," Satomi said, holding out her hands to take them.

"Umm ... so this stuff can be really easily contaminated, right?" Haruna asked hesitantly.

"What did you do?" Hakase asked, bracing herself for some wild tale of how it wasn't Haruna's fault.

"It wasn't my fault!" Haruna protested predictably. "I'm just, well, um. One of them had been, well, doing stuff, and I'm concerned that the sample I took from her might have material from -"

"That won't happen," Satomi interrupted as she reached out to take the two swabs. "No matter how passionately they were kissing each other, the bucal area won't get contaminated by foreign DNA. At least not as long as you went far enough back. Which you did, right?"

"I think so," Haruna said, somewhat dubiously.

 _Oh, for trained assistants, _Satomi thought as she put the heads of the swabs into tiny flasks, filled with distilled water, and put them in the PCR machine to start it spinning. "Okay, that's that. We should have results in a couple hours. Don't look at me like that, what do you think this is, _CSI: Mahora?___ These things take time. Go read a book or something. I'll call you when I'm ready"

She watched Haruna wander off muttering, then settled down to wait.

It took fifteen minutes for the PCR to replicate enough for the scanners to detect and analyze, and from there it was just a few minutes for her computer to produce some results and print them up. Admittedly, both machines had more than a few components which were not factory issue - at least not for this decade. But there was no point in giving away all of her secrets just yet.

Satomi examined the results carefully, frowning. She was conscious of the fact that, at the moment, she was well outside her areas of specialization. While she was probably ahead of the class in biology, she wasn't nearly as ahead of them in that field as she was in electronics and engineering. She needed to consult with some people.

So she picked up her phone and dialed a number that wasn't Haruna's. "Hello, Ikaruga-sensei? It's Hakase. I'm doing well, thank you. I need a consult, are you free? Oh, good. I'm going to fax over some DNA profiles, and I'm hoping that you'll be able to examine them better than I can. Thank you, Ikaruga-sensei. All right, fine, thank you, Arisu."

* * *

A couple of hours later, Haruna got the call she'd been expecting, and immediately departed from Library Island to head back to the dorms. Her first stop was Setsuna's room, where she found the swordswoman grimly cleaning the walls of their copious blood stains.

"... uh ... what happened here?" Haruna asked.

"I don't know. I'm not sure that I want to know," Setsuna replied tersely as she squeezed the sponge in the bucket.

"Well. You remember that thing I stuck in your mouth when you and Asuna came down all -"

"Yes, I remember," Setsuna interrupted. "You never did explain what that was all about."

"Hakase can probably explain it better than I can," Haruna started to say.

"That's a given," Setsuna muttered.

Haruna paused, then beamed. "You've grown snarky. I like it! Anyway, come with me and she will explain it better than I can."

Setsuna looked around at the blood spatters, then sighed. "Eh. The dorm mother is probably too scared of Mana to say anything anyway."

"She's a sensible woman that way."

They went over to Haruna's room, woke up Konoka and dragged her along to Hakase's lab. There they found the mad scientist sitting on her stool, in front of a video screen displaying the face of a smiling woman with glasses. In the bottom left corner of the screen, the word "Pause" was displayed.

"Okay," Satomi said. "The first thing you two need to know is that Haruna didn't tell me that you were under the impression that you were half-sisters until after I'd already guessed that you were involved in the incestuous relationship that Negi-sensei is having with Asuna and his mother."

_So much for being the least socially maladroit person in the room, _Haruna thought, as Konoka blushed incandescently and Setsuna glared at her, prompting Haruna to shiver under the murderous intent. _And to think I thought that was a silly plot device.___

__"What, what do you mean, 'under the impression'?" Konoka asked after a moment. "My father, well, he admitted that he's Set-chan's father, too."_ _

__"Then he deserves credit for his honesty and honor. Because there's no other way of proving it. When I examined your DNA, I found that it was impossible to prove that you two have any parents in common. In fact, Setsuna, your DNA is ... well, I'm going to have to be blunt. Chimpanzees are closer to human than you are. You only have about 89% of the same chromosones as a human being. And you have more of them."_ _

__Into the stunned silence that followed, Satomi pointed to the monitor. "This is a recording of a videoconference I had with Dr. Ikaruga Arisu, a ... well, I'll let her discuss her qualifications herself. I sent copies of the DNA sequences to her, but I didn't tell her anything about either of you, so some of her comments may seem a little harsh. I'll be repeating my exact words."_ _

__She held up a remote and said, "Hello, sensei, I'm glad you could take the time to speak with me."_ _

__"I'm happy to be of help, particularly in this strange case," said the recording, as the Pause display flickered out. "But, please, Satomi-chan, you have to call me Arisu."_ _

__"I won't do that," Satomi said._ _

__"Yay!" said Arisu, suggesting that Satomi might not be all that scrupulous about repeating herself. "So, how do you want to handle this?"_ _

__"Why don't you first explain just what your qualifications are?"_ _

__"Well, I graduated high school at thirteen, got my first degree at fifteen, my first doctorate at seventeen, and am currently working for some people I probably shouldn't tell you about. I've published a number of papers on the field of genetics research, and you and I met at a conference on tissue engineering two years ago. How are you doing in that area, incidentally?"_ _

__"Reasonably well," Satomi said vaguely._ _

__"All right, keep your secrets, I plan to keep mine. But I really do have to ask where you found this information."_ _

__"Can't tell you, it'd violate someone's confidence."_ _

__"Hmm. Well, all right."_ _

__"So tell me about the survey I sent you."_ _

__"Well, it describes a mammalian organism, I think, but some of its DNA is closer to a bird or an amphibian. Or an ovivoparous mammal, like a platypus. Or even a salamander. Honestly, it's not like anything I've ever seen before. It's a bit like something like they got out of Dr. Hall's laboratory after she was arrested, the poor soul, but ... something tells me that's not what I'm dealing with. Is it."_ _

__"I really can't comment. Thank you for your time and trouble, sensei."_ _

__"No problem, Satomi-chan! You say hi to Chao for me, won't you?"_ _

__"I'll try." The Videoconference ended. "So there you have it," Satomi said, turning to look at her three classmates._ _

__Konoka looked stunned. "But, but Chizuru-san thought we looked alike, like sisters ..." she protested._ _

__Satomi nodded. "Yes, she told me about that when I spoke with her this afternoon. I asked her to elaborate, and most of what she was talking about was cosmetic in nature - it involves decisions about how you choose to style your hair, your make-up choices, and so on. And I suspect that like a lot of people, your decisions in this area are strongly influenced by your desire to look like the people you find attractive - in other words, by each other."_ _

__"Time out. How do you know about stuff like that?" Haruna said, barely keeping afloat in the waves of information._ _

__"I studied it while I was designing Chachamaru's appearance. She's largely a composite of the features of people I find most attractive, which is why I think she really resembles Akira-san. But that's just my opinion," she added quickly._ _

__"Eishun-sama ..." Setsuna said, almost poleaxed._ _

__"I think he was probably telling the truth as he saw it, but that he didn't really understand what happened. This is all just hypothesis, until I get a chance to study youkai gametes in detail, but I suspect that youkai basically engage in semi-parthenogenesis, giving birth to clones of themselves, with maybe a small amount of variability added from their partner. And in particular, considering the fact that your mother was a bird youkai, and all the egg-laying elements in your biology ... I'm thinking you hatched."_ _

__"I ... have no idea how I'm supposed to respond to all of this," Konoka said after a moment._ _

__"Neither do I," Setsuna agreed._ _

__"How about being happy that you're not engaged in incest?" Haruna said softly._ _

__"With each other at least. But you really ought to stop doing things with your father, because that is just disgusting, Konoka-san," Satomi interjected._ _

__"I'm pretty sure that's over," Konoka said, sounding both embarrassed and ashamed._ _

__"Well, good. Now you two can -"_ _

__"Can we?" Setsuna interrupted, rubbing her eyes. "I always thought I was at was at least partly human ... now I don't even have that. Do I have the right to -"_ _

__"Oh, come on!" Everyone stared as Satomi raised her voice, something that usually never happened. "So you're not human. So what? You're still a person! You still think, feel, hurt and love! You're closer to human that Chachamaru is or will ever be - do you think she's not a person?" Satomi frowned as she asked that, suggesting dire fates awaiting those who answered that question in a way that displeased her._ _

__"Well, no, I don't think that, but -" Setsuna hedged._ _

__"Set-ch- no. Setsuna," said Konoka, quietly. "In this room alone, there are three people who think you're a person, and one who has doubts. Why are you trying to stand out in this? Some nails that stand up should be hammered down."_ _

__Slowly, Setsuna turned, looked at Konoka ... and pulled her into an embrace._ _

__And Haruna, watching, didn't feel sick at all._ _

* * *

__"Not bad work for an afternoon," Satomi said a little while later, leaning back in a chair in the two person room where she lived alone._ _

__"Yeah," agreed Haruna, seated on the bunk. "I just wish that all that stuff you said could help with the rest of the problem."_ _

__Satomi shrugged. "In my experience, it's often not the problems we know about that are the most serious. It's the ones we don't know about."_ _

__"Maybe," Haruna said, non-committally. "Hey, listen, about what I said before ... I'm cool with us being half-sisters. You're all right in my book, Satomi. Dad's gonna get an earful, though -"_ _

__"Don't bother, he probably doesn't even remember the episode," Satomi interrupted, shaking her head. "So ... does that mean you're going to kiss me after all, if you're okay with -"_ _

__"I'm not okay with thaaaat!" Haruna yelled, reaching for a pillow to throw it. "Dammit, Hakase!"_ _

__"Well, I'm sorry, but I actually find you quite attractive, and since most of my sexual experiences have been with myself or with Chao, I'm pretty much lesbian," Satomi protested as she dodged. "And I don't see what your problem is. It's not like there's a sociological problem here, and since we couldn't reproduce with each other, there's no biological -"_ _

__"I'm leaving now," Haruna says. "I'm leaving before you say more things that will really mess with my fragile, innocent mind. Watch me leave. I'm walking out the door. I'm closing it -"_ _

__And she did._ _

__Satomi shook her head, pulled out one of her vibrators, and took care of her own needs. Again._ _

* * *

__Much later that night, Setsuna and Konoka sat together on the roof, under a blanket brought from Setsuna's room - which just faintly smelled of blood - staring up at the stars and enjoying each others' company._ _

__"So ... are you going to tell me?" Setsuna asked into the silence._ _

__"Tell you what?" Konoka replied._ _

__"Tell me why you were so upset at our, I mean your father. There's more to it than you've been saying."_ _

__Konoka was silent for a while, and then she said. "Yes. Yes, there was. Setch- I've got to stop doing that, don't I?"_ _

__"I don't mind."_ _

__"We can't be the children we were," Konoka said firmly. "No matter how much I'd want that ... no matter how much I'd love to be that innocent again, we can't be."_ _

__"What do you mean?" Setsuna asked._ _

__And Konoka told her everything._ _

__**Next:** Natsumi._ _


	28. Natsumi

"Okay, so this Varu Jaanu guy goes, 'You have my word that my daughter will know what this letter contains'," Kotaro recited, reading off the script. "And then he goes, 'Tell the young man she will read it tomorrow and here's for your pains. Go careful now, stay out of sight, there's trouble in the streets tonight.' And tosses you a coin. Wow, a hundred yen. What a big spender."

Natsumi sighed. Why had she thought this was a good idea? "It's probably not a hundred yen coin, Kotaro-kun," she explained wearily.

"Cripes, a ten? What a cheapskate. And he's the hero of this thing?"

Natsumi leaned back against the back of the couch, finished counting to ten, and continued. "I meant that it's probably a ... well, a ... okay, I don't know what kind of coins they used in France two hundred years ago, but -"

"Francs," said Chizuru from the kitchen table, where she was finishing her summer homework awkwardly, writing with her off-hand.

"Francs," Natsumi repeated. "It's probably a franc. And you could probably buy a lot more with the coin he gave her than you could buy with a hundred yen coin, because one of the character traits of Val Jean -" She took a certain reasonable amount of pride in pronouncing the name correctly. "- is that he's incredibly generous."

Kotaro was staring at her, eyes half-lidded. This was an expression she suspected he ripped off from Kaede, and one which he generally used to hint that he found a conversation incredibly boring. She got it a lot.

Another sigh. "Let's just move forward, shall we? So Eponine gives Val Jean the letter."

"And he reads someone else's letter out loud so anyone around can hear it," Kotaro continued. "Yeah, he's such a swell guy," he added with a sneer.

"If he didn't read it out loud, the audience wouldn't know what the letter said," Natsumi explained wearily. Why couldn't Kotaro grasp dramatic conventions?

"Who cares about the audience? Shouldn't you be a little mad about this? I mean, you're the one who's listening in as he reads it, which is kinda sleazy itself, but never mind that, now. The letter's all about this dorky guy you supposedly have a crush on telling some other chick how much he wubs her. Doesn't that piss you off?"

For a few moments, Natsumi tried to follow the zig-zag of Kotaro's point. Then she gave up. "Okay, first of all, it's not me, it's Eponine who's doing all of these things. It's important to keep that in mind."

"But you're Eponine," Kotaro pointed out reasonably.

"No, I'm not. I'm auditioning to play Eponine, and even if I get the part, which I probably won't, I won't be her, I'll just be playing her."

"So it's just that you want to be Eponine."

"No, that's not it either," Natsumi almost snarled. It just came out sounding like a whine, unfortunately.

"Be, play, it's the same thing, isn't it? And if you don't want to be her, then why are you auditioning in the first place?"

"He has a point, you know," Chizuru observed.

"Don't encourage him, Chizu-ne!"

Chizuru only shrugged in response.

Natsumi took a few deep breaths. "Okay. It's like a fight," she said.

Now Kotaro leaned back, smiling broadly. "Okay, now this I gotta hear."

"You want to fight Negi-kun, right? And in order to get good enough to be able to fight him, you fight other people, to grow as a fighter, right? Well, it's the same with me. I want to become a great actress who can take major roles, and the only way I can do that is to take on more and more important supporting roles, to train myself. Okay? So even though I would never ever want to be Eponine, I think the challenge of playing her is one that will help me to become a better actress." She looked at him, fully expecting him to laugh at her.

"Damn," he said, smiling broadly. "That made sense!"

Natsumi felt herself going all weak when he smiled. Under any other circumstances, she would probably have launched herself at him and begun kissing him frantically. It wasn't easy to hold herself back from doing so even under these particular circumstances, but she managed. "Okay, then," she said, blushing brightly. "Let's proceed."

"Alright. So after the jerk reads the letter out loud and runs off, you, I mean, Eponine is left all alone on the stage and that's when you start singing." Kotaro mimed disgust.

It was a never-ending rollercoaster with him, sometimes. "I've been singing all along. Nearly all of the dialogue in this play is set to music. But this is Eponine's big musical number."

"How come she gets a big musical number if she's just a supporting character?" Kotaro asked.

Natsumi coughed. "Because she's a more important supporting character than the ones I usually play, but she is still a supporting character. She dies, you see, and even when she shows up at the end as, well, as a ghost, she's still supporting Fantine and val Jean, rather than being important or having important lines. Still a supporting character," she repeated.

Kotaro exhbibited rare discretion by not saying anything to that. "Okay, but why the music, huh? It's silly! People don't just burst into song!"

"They don't -" She narrowly stopped herself from pointing out that people didn't start fighting for no particular reason, or have transformation sequences, or engage in stereotypically hot-blooded behavior. All of which were entirely real things, she now knew. She took a moment to compose herself. "It adds to the emotional content of the words," she said. "And sometimes it also adds subtext."

"Okay, what the hell is subtext?"

"I will not only explain what subtext is, I will show you how you use it all the time! It's a teachable moment!" Natsumi said cheerfully. "Your own words - _what a big spender_. If you say those words one way, it sounds like you're indicating that you think that the person you're talking about is actually a big spender. But if you say them another way, you're saying that he isn't a big spender, but rather someone who is very cheap. That is subtext."

"So this is just a funny way of saying sarcasm?" he asked.

"That's one kind of subtext. Anything where, if you were reading it on the printed page, you'd need a hint to tell you that something other than the words themselves was being meant, that's a kind of subtext."

Kotaro was silent for a moment, considering this. "Okay," he said slowly. "I was wondering how music could suggest sarcasm, but if it's other things, too, then I guess ... okay, I can see it, sort of."

"Teachable moment concluded!" Natsumi shouted, grinning broadly. "How'd I do, sensei?"

"I'd applaud if I could," Cnizuru answered, rolling her shoulder uncomfortably.

Kotaro opened his mouth to object to being the subject of a teachable moment, then realized just how happy Natsumi was ... and continued to show rare discretion by shutting his mouth and saying nothing.

Just then, the door opened, and Ayaka came in, wearing a red dress that none of them had ever seen before and an bracelet that drew Kotaro's attention like a magnet. "Tadaima," the class representative said wearily.

"Okaeri," Chizuru said without looking at her. "How was your night out?"

"Very interesting," Ayaka said, returning the favor. "But the day that followed was a lot of work. We have some visitors from out of town that I had to introduce to the Headmaster. And some other things happened ... but I'm really very tired, so if you'll please excuse me, I'm going to bed."

"Have a nice sleep," Chizuru said.

"I'll try," Ayaka replied. She looked towards Natsumi and smiled faintly. "Getting ready for the audition?" she asked.

Natsumi, terribly nervous, just nodded.

"Break a leg. That's what they say, in the theatre, right? Good night, all." And with that, Ayaka headed for her room. At the table, Chizuru sat for a few moments, resting her eyes on the palm of her uninjured hand, before gettting up and going to her own room.

"... what just happened?" Kotaro asked a moment later.

"Subtext," Natsumi answered sadly. "And you don't get to make fun of Iinchou for not realizing we're not brother and sister anymore."

"Huh?"

* * *

And so they had come home.

The conference ended, and neither Yuna nor her father had any interest in staying in Amsterdam any longer than they had to, for recent experiences had somewhat soured them on the city. So they boarded a plane for Japan, arrived at Narita and then took the train into Mahora, arriving at his apartment just after sunset. They were only slightly tired from their journey, having napped on the flight.

So they did what by now came naturally.

Yuna was flat on her back on the bed she'd slept in as a child, looking up at her father as he pumped his hard rod into her wet core, her feet up and wrapped around his knees as her hands clenched his buttocks. Earlier, he had peppered her face with kisses, but now he was entirely focused on the lower regions. She might as well have been lying on her stomach for all the attention he paid her. On the other hand, the ceilling behind his head was slightly more interesting than a close examination of the sheets would be.

_Mm, no, mustn't get distracted,_ Yuna reminded herself. She took her right hand off her father's buttocks and slipped it up between their bodies, to start massaging the man in the boat. He didn't like it when she didn't achieve climax, either before or with him. It was getting harder to do, but she wanted him to be happy. So she rubbed, and eventually felt a surge of release, just moments before he let out a gasp and flooded her with baby batter.

That made her wonder. "You're using some kind of magic birth control, right?" she asked as he pulled her softening manhood out of her and rolled over to lie beside her.

"Yes. Kills the sperm cells before they even ejaculate. Casting it is almost reflex, now," he answered, breathing heavily.

"... I wouldn't mind if you didn't," she said, absently. "Could I borrow a smoke?"

"That's not funny," he said, just a little sharply.

"It's kind of weird for you to be telling me not to pick up bad habits, dad," Yuna answered, faintly amused.

"That's not what I meant."

"Oh, that. It wouldn't be a big deal. And hey, if I have a little girl, then thirteen years from now, when I'm too old for you, she can take over for me."

"Yuna."

"And if I have a little boy, then twelve years from now, when you're too old for me, he can take over for you," she continued.

"Yuna, that's not fun-"

"Or maybe I could have one of each, and we'll both teach them all about -"

"Yuna!" he yelled.

And now she turned to look at him, and quietly said, "It's over, isn't it." Not making it a question.

Akashi-sensei took a moment to calm down, and then said, just as quietly, "I think that it has to be, don't you? If I want to remain a teacher here, and I do, and you want to remain a student here - and I think you do - we can't keep doing this. Even beyond the fact that we're father and daughter, that makes it problematic, you see."

"Yeah, I see. And, yeah, I do." She sighed. "This is where I'm supposed to say something stupid and moving like, 'I'll never love anyone as much as I loved you.' Well, fuck that. I'm gonna devote the rest of my life to finding someone who'll love me like crazy, and when I find that person I'm gonna love them way more than I ever loved you." Her voice was firm, grim, and certain.

"Uh," he said. _No idea how I'm supposed to respond to that._ "Okay," he finally said.

Yuna's expression softened in the face of his haplessness. "But you will always be my daddy. And you're a great lay, so you should get out more. Maybe if we can't find Nagi-san, you and Arika-san can hook up again. You looked really hot banging her with Eishun-jiisan that time. I still can't believe she can take two guys' dicks in her yaya." With a grunt, she stood up and walked naked to the door of the room. "I'm having a shower. No peeking."

"... right," he said. _Did she just say no peeking?_

She went into the shower stall, started the water running, and lowered her face into the spray.

Then, and only then, did she start crying.

* * *

The next day found Natsumi up before any of her roommates. Chizuru was usually up first, but owing to her condition, she needed to get as much rest as possible. Ayaka could sleep for days. And Kotaro ... Kotaro usually got up when Natsumi did. But that morning, she strove to be more quiet than a mouse as she padded past his cot, pausing only to breathe in his smell. He needed a bath, as he usually did, but ... his smell wasn't all that bad.

With that consideration, she pulled on her shoes and headed out. The auditions didn't start until later this morning, but if she had any breakfast larger than the granola bar she was taking with her, she'd probably spend precious minutes before she went on puking it up. (Nerves, not bulimia. That's what she told herself at any rate.)

As it turned out, quite a few other young girls (and one or two not so young) had had the same idea, and there was quite a line-up outside the theatre. This was good, or so Natsumi told herself. She had the chance to scope out the competition. ( _Hah,_ said the inner Natsumi, hah hah hah. _You honestly think that you're any competition for anyone?_ ) Most of them seemed just as nervous and anxious as her.

It was the first time that the School Version of Les Miserables would be performed in Japan. Of course, it would happen here at Mahora. Everything else did, so why not this, too? And the competition was going to be fierce for all the roles, even for a supporting role like Eponine. Most likely, the best that Natsumi could hope for would be to understudy. ( _Hah hah hah,_ went the inner Natsumi, who was really starting to annoy the outer Natsumi.)

Eventually, the doors opened, and all the prospective Eponines marched into the theatre to take up seats in the auditorium, reporting their names to the production assistants so that they could be called up in alphabetical order. Natsumi got comfortable in her seat, pulling out her granola bar to take a few bites. Murakami, after all, was pretty far down in the alphabet, and so -

"Okay," said the director, seated in the auditorium's first row. "We're not going to go by alphabetical order, because I don't feel like doing it that way. Let's just pick a name, shall we? Um, duh duh dee dee ... Murakami Natsumi!"

Natsumi found herself choking on the granola.

"Going once, Murakami Natsumi!"

"Here," she said, standing up, and starting to make her way towards the aisle, past girls whose names began with vowels or the consonants k and s, who were staring at her with marked hostility. To their credit, none of them deliberately tried to make her journey harder, at least not that she noticed, but they didn't have to, really. It took her several minutes, and then she was out in the aisle and dashing up to the stairs set up to let her walk up to center stage, where the lights were brightest.

She couldn't see anything in the darkness beyond the orchestra pit. She suspected that the director wanted it that way. No way that an actress could play up her 'talents' directly at him.

"Murakami," the director repeated. "Where've I seen you before?"

She opened her mouth to start describing her embarassing body of work.

"Oh, right!" he interrupted. "You were in that one Cinderella show that was done for the kindergarten class. My daughter told me all about it, and I looked up the players who'd done it. Nice work, she was really entertained. I guess stepping in like that gave you a taste for the lead roles."

_Oh my._ He'd heard about that. Her friends and Kotaro had basically arranged things so that she had to step up and take on the lead, even though she had just wanted to direct their efforts. It had really been wait did he say something about lead roles?

"Lead roles?" she repeated, bewildered.

"Sure. Eponine's one of the most important characters in the play. You didn't think she was a supporting character or something, did you?"

"... of course not!" Natsumi vigorously lied.

She couldn't believe it. All that talk she'd given Kotaro about subtext, and she'd completely ignored one of the most important ways that music could lend a song subtext. When the same tune was used for different words, it linked them in the listener's mind. And Eponine's song used almost the same tune as the climactic music of the entire play! Of course she was a lead.

What was she thinking, trying out for a leading role! She was just a supporting character!

"So, whenever you're ready?" asked the director.

Natsumi nodded. But saying that she had made a mistake would embarass her even more than she'd be embarassed by her inevitable poor performance. She could kiss whatever theatrical ambitions she might have good bye if she did that. Forget appearing as Acorn Number One, she'd be lucky to become a stagehand and walk around dressed like a ninja. Her only real option was to go forward and do the audition as though it wasn't absurd for her to do this.

The piano began to play the music, and she let the pianist give her a few bars while reviewing the song. This was a song about loneliness, about realizing that you're not as important to someone else as you'd want to be. She understood that, surprisingly well, actually. This was just what Chizu-ne was going through. It hurt her own heart to watch the way that Ayaka was turning her back on what they had.

Suddenly, there was someone else sharing her body with her, and that person began to sing, her tongue traipsing swiftly over the first few verses.

_And now I'm all alone again_   
_Nowhere to turn, no one to go to_   
_Without a home without a friend_   
_Without a face to say hello to_   
_And now the night is near_   
_Now I can make believe he's here_   


It was surprisingly easy to remember not to say 'she'.

_Sometimes I walk alone at night_   
_When everybody else is sleeping_   
_I think of him and then I'm happy_   
_With the company I'm keeping_   
_The city goes to bed_   
_And I can live inside my head_   


And now the chorus. The words that defined who she was.

_On my own_   
_Pretending he's beside me_   
_All alone_   
_I walk with him till morning_   
_Without him_   
_I feel his arms around me_   
_And when I lose my way I close my eyes_   
_And he has found me_   


She was speaking now a little more from her own heart, her own dreams of what her own love might be like.

_In the rain the pavement shines like silver_   
_All the lights are misty in the river_   
_In the darkness, the trees are full of starlight_   
_And all I see is him and me forever and forever_   


But really, Kotaro could get by fine without her. She knew that. It only hurt a little to admit it.

_And I know it's only in my mind_   
_That I'm talking to myself and not to him_   
_And although I know that he is blind_   
_Still I say, there's a way for us_   


And suddenly, she wasn't thinking about Chizuru, or Ayaka, or even Kotaro. This wasn't about any of them, and it wasn't about Eponine or Marius or anyone else. This was about anyone who had ever been a supporting character in someone else's life.

_I love him_   
_But when the night is over_   
_He is gone_   
_The river's just a river_   
_Without him_   
_The world around me changes_   
_The trees are bare and everywhere_   
_The streets are full of strangers_   


And that was everyone.

Her voice began to soar.

_I love him_   
_But every day I'm learning_   
_All my life_   
_I've only been pretending_   
_Without me_   
_His world would go on turning_   
_A world that's full of happiness_   
_That I have never known_   


Draw it back now, become quiet. Hide the pain. Clutch it down deep.

_I love him_   
_I love him_   
_I love him_   
_But only on my own_   


And she was done.

Dead silence.

_Oh great,_ Natsumi thought disgustedly. _How bad of an idiot did I sound just now?_

"Um," said the director after a moment. "Well. That was very good, don't you think? Yeah. Um, well, we'll definitely keep you in mind, Murakami-san."

Recognizing dismissal when she heard it, Natsumi quickly headed down the stairs on the opposite side of the stage from where she'd come up, and briskly walked up the aisle, feeling the hostile eyes on her once again. Right now, all she wanted to do was to get out of here, head back to her dorm room, crawl into bed, and die. Well, okay, maybe just cry herself senseless.

She had just cleared the auditorium doors when there was a low whistle from behind her. "I think you maybe forgot something?" said grown-up Kotaro, holding up the jacket she'd left in her seat when she went up on stage.

"Oh, thank you," she said reflexively, followed almost immediately by, "Kotaro-kun! What are you doing here, I told you I'd be too nervous to do anything if you were watching, and -"

"So I decided you meant you'd be too nervous if you knew I was watching, and I didn't let you know," he said blandly as he draped the jacket across her shoulders. This brought him close enough that he could speak directly into her ear. "And you did great," he said softly. Roughly, but softly.

"What are you talking about, the director couldn't wait to get me off stage," Natsumi said dismissively. "Everyone was staring at me like I'd just exploded some kind of stink bomb."

"Bupkiss," said Kotaro. "I may know jack about music, but I know when someone's giving it everything they got. If that director wanted you off the stage, he's a schlub. Nothing we can do about that. But if everyone was giving you the evil eye, it's 'cause they know you just set the high mark and they're gonna have to work their hearts out to even come close to meetin' it." He rested his hands on her shoulders. "You did great."

The possibility that he might be right suddenly exploded in her mind, and she almost reeled. Before she could collapse, though, Kotaro enfolded her in an embrace. Her face was up against his left pectoral, and she was breathing in his scent even deeper than she had earlier this morning. He definitely needed a bath. He definitely smelled good.

So good.

Slowly, she pulled back, looked up, wrapped her arms around his neck and shoulders, and pulled him down so she could kiss him. He blinked, startled, as her tongue reached up into his mouth. "Wurgh?" he said. It was hard to get the word out. They were in public, for pity's sake.

"I really want to be alone with you right now," Natsumi said, when she eventually released his lips.

"Uhhh," Kotaro responded with his usual scintillating wit.

"Yeah, I know. You're ten years old. I'm as bad as Iincho. But you know what?" she said. "I don't care. I really don't. Let's go, Kotaro-kun."

"Where are we going?" he asked, faintly.

"To my room."

Eventually, they got there, and found that both Chizuru and Ayaka had disappeared for the moment. Convenient, particularly in the latter instance. They kept kissing frantically as she pushed him back through the door to her treasured private room, and then backwards so that he fell back onto the bed and pulled her with him.

"Um, Natsumi-chan?" Kotaro asked hesitantly as she stopped kissing his mouth and began to rain kisses on his jaw and chin while her hands busily worked at his belt. "What, exactly, are we doing here?"

"It," she answered as she got the belt loop out of the buckle.

"And ... by it, you mean ... it, as in it," Kotaro stammered, blushing faintly.

Natsumi paused in her attempts to unbuckle the belt. "God, you're cute," she said.

"Um, I'm really, really not so sure about this -" the dog hanyou started to say.

"Negi does it," Natsumi interrupted.

"Uruh?" Kotaro replied. "What, how, how do you know that?"

The buckle finally was undone. "You've seen how happy Iinchou's been lately, right?" she asked, opening the snap on his pants, and starting to pull down the zipper.

"Well, yeah, but that's cause she got a pactio, which means, okay, they kissed, but that doesn't mean that they're -"

"She stayed out all night," Natsumi interrupted again, shaking her head as she realized that, of course, Kotaro went commando under his jeans, and reached in through the fly. "Why would she do that if she wasn't, wasn't ..." She trailed off as she realized what she was holding and pulling up into sight.

Had she been an American, she might have said something along the lines of "Holy Mother Macrae," but being Japanese, albeit very Westernized, all she did was gape.

"What, what?" Kotaro said, panicking a bit at the look of mild fear on her face.

"Um. Wow," she said. "This is, um." She'd seen one of Chizu-ne's dildos once, and thought to herself, that can't possibly go inside someone. This was about that big. "Well, it's, it's nothing to worry about, Kotaro-kun. It just needs l-lubricant. That's all."

"What?" Kotaro repeated, sounding possibly more frightened. "Natsumi-chan, how, how do you know about these things?"

"I, well, I went to all of Kakizaki's lectures, you know, just, just in case the only acting job I could get was as an AV idol," she said very quickly and quietly.

"Okay, what?" Kotaro asked, fear vanishing in a surge of anger.

"Never mind that now!" she said, and mouth open wide enough to take a big bite out of a rice ball, she proceeded to start lubricating him. _Oh boy,_ she thought. _Kakizaki, couldn't you have mentioned that this really didn't taste all that great?_

Now it would have been Kotaro's turn to say something like "Holy Mother Macrae", but instead he simply boggled at the sight before him. If she could, Natsumi would have sighed. She was going to have to do all the work, wasn't she? With her free hand, she reached down and started fiddling with the snap on her own jeans.

By the time she got them down to her knees, along with her panties, Kotaro had regained enough animation to at least start running his fingers through her hair as she bobbed up and down. He was still shy enough not to try and do something stupid like pushing her down so as to put the head of his thing at the back of her throat, which was good, because he was certainly not smart enough not to do something like that. One loved an idiot at one's peril.

"Okay," Natsumi said, pulling back and breathing deeply. "I think, yes, that should be lubricated enough, but, I mean, if you wouldn't mind making sure that I was, well, l-lubricated," she continued, as she stood up to a kneeling position and pushed the panties and jeans down to her ankles. "I mean, if you don't think that it's too -" 

She eeked as, with a growl, Kotaro lifted himself up and threw his face down between her thighs and began licking frantically. 

"I was, ah, going, ah ah, going to say, ahhhhh, unmanly, but I, ah ah ah! I, I guess that it doesn't -" 

"Nah, I lick my own ass all the time, this is nothing," Kotaro said dismissively. 

"Way too much information!" Natsumi shrieked.

Eventually, unwilling to simply lie there passively like Kotaro had when she was doing stuff to him, she persuaded him to roll over from his stomach onto his back, with her perched on his face, and bent over to get another crack at his thing. What he was doing distracted her, so she was really only able to lick at and tease its head with her tongue, while her hands wrapped around the rest of the shaft. He was making excited and pleased sounds, and becoming even more enthusiastic, like a -

_No! Don't go there!_

\- like a puppy, and now her thoughts were filled with the idea of doing it with him in his full wolfy form, and oh, it was wrong, wrong, wrong on so many levels, but she just couldn't stop, and it kept building, and building, and finally, she pulled back to let out a bone-shattering howl of sheer release. For a few moments, all she could do was just sit there and pant.

And then the door was flung open. "Good grief, Natsumi-chan, what's wrong -" Ayaka said, gasping as she ran in wearing her bathrobe and stared at the sight before her. Natsumi, in her turn stared at Ayaka. Kotaro, unable to see any of this, chose that moment to emit both a grunt and a stream of white ejaculate up towards the bottom of Natsumi's chin. 

Incredibly, the first words out of her mouth after that happened were, "This isn't what it looks like." She didn't know why she said that. She wasn't a very good liar, normally, but that was weak even for her. 

After a moment, Ayaka found her voice. "Natsumi-chan," she said levelly. "You are a complete failure as a liar. You have obviously used those age-disguise pills that I've heard about to increase Kotaro-kun's age, and are engaging in sex with him. Under the circumstances, I really can't object to you two engaging in incest. Indeed, given what Chizuru said about the soap opera that was your home life, I suppose that it was probably inevitable. So I will simply leave you to it ... but I would ask that you please keep it down, so that people approaching in the hallways do not hear you screaming and run in with the expectation of finding you in intense pain! Complete failure, Natsumi-chan!" With that, Ayaka stepped back out of Natsumi's bedroom and closed the door in front of her. 

After a few more moments of utter paralysis, Natsumi rolled over onto her back and covered her face with her hands, then pulled them back as she realized what was getting on her palms. Kakizaki's lectures had not mentioned a number of important topics, she now realized. 

"Okay, can I make fun of her for not realizing -" Kotaro started to ask. 

"No," Natsumi growled. 

"Are we gonna -" 

"The mood is gone!" Natsumi replied sharply. "And, and anyway, we don't have any condoms. I just realized that. It's, it's really a good thing that Iincho burst in like that, I might not have remembered that we don't have any condoms, and then I might get in trouble. You wouldn't want me to get in trouble, would you, Kotaro-kun? Are you ready to take responsibility?"

"Um, no," he said.

"Right," she said, refusing to think about the little box hidden in one of her drawers. Especially refusing to look in that direction. Failure as a liar, huh? "I, I need to get cleaned up," she said, absently. 

"I can take care of that for you," Kotaro said, desperately trying to brighten her mood by being helpful, as he let his long tongue loll out of his mouth. 

"Wait, what? But, but this is -" Natsumi protested as he approached. 

"Eh, whatever."

* * *

Ayaka heard a faint shriek from Natsumi's bedroom, and shook her head. Well, at least someone here was happy. She'd been hoping to meet Negi - definitely just Negi, not anyone who might be accompanying him - at the baths, but her hope was in vain. Nor had they been in when she went to their room. Doubtless they were engaged in some sort of planning to deal with that Tsukuyomi person.

But she was part of the group, now, wasn't she? They should be inviting her in to their strategizing! 

In any event, now, all there was to do was to sit around and wait for Chizuru to come back and endure even more uncomfortable, subtext-laden conversation with her. Some summer days lasted forever, even if you'd rather they didn't.

There was a knock at the door. Ayaka blinked, got up from the couch and went over to open it.

"There's my favorite grandchild," said her grandfather fondly, eyes faintly visible behind his thick spectacles. 

"Grandfather!" Ayaka replied happily. "When you didn't arrive yesterday, I thought maybe you'd changed your mind!" 

"Oh, you know how it is, there were endless distractions," he said vaguely. "Is this the fashion, these days?" he asked, looking askance at her bathrobe. 

"Oh, don't be silly!" she said, shaking her head. "I just got back from the baths. Come in, have a seat, I'll get changed -" 

"Oh, no, it wouldn't be right for me to enter a young woman's private residence," her grandfather said, holding up his hands in a gesture of refusal. "I'll wait out here. Is Naba-san in? I was looking forward to seeing her again."

Ayaka coughed. "Um, no, she's, um, at the doctors. A recent accident. I'm sure you'll see her later this evening." 

"I hope so. I'll wait out here," he repeated. 

"All right. Won't be but a moment!" Ayaka said, and closed the door to dash off to her room. 

Outside, the man adjusted his spectacles. Best purchase of his life, he decided.

Kept anyone from thinking there was anything at all odd about his heterochromia. 

**Next:** Takamichi 


	29. Takamichi

Her mouth was warm and wet around him as he wound his fingers through the curls of her bright orange hair. It was almost the same color as - No. Don't think about that. She bobbed up and down, tonguing him quite skillfully. He avoided paying much attention to the school gossip mill, but some rumors couldn't be ignored. The ones about her, clearly, were remarkable exaggerations. Or so it seemed.

Eventually, his orgasm couldn't be denied any longer. "I'm about to -" he said, to give her the choice of whether or not to take it in her mouth. But her response to his first words was to push her mouth further down on him, making her choice clear. So he honored it, and let go.

It wasn't particularly large climax, understandably so, given the large load he'd pumped into her - technically, into a condom - last night. It was still enough to make her cough to clear her throat before she spoke. "A pleasant way to wake up, I'd imagine?"

"Very pleasant," he agreed.

"Thank you," she said, standing up to reveal that she was already dressed most of the way, with her skirt and blouse already on, only requiring the jacket to complete the transformation into a high school senior. She pulled that on, and added the locket she always wore (or almost always, he remembered, since it hadn't been on her neck as he slammed his manhood into her.) "You were very satisfactory, too."

"Thank you," he replied. "You never did say why you were interested, Arisugawa." She would be graduating this year, and was an honor student, so it couldn't have been 'assisted tutoring', to use the term some of his more libidinous colleagues had coined for what motivated most teacher-student relationships.

"Didn't I?" she asked carelessly. "I suppose that I was just satisfying a curiosity, as well as satisfying other things. And in person, you're not quite as intimidating as your reputation would have it, Death-Specs-sensei."

He snorted at the silly nickname he'd been saddled with as he watched her head for his apartment door. She paused as she put on her shoes. "Was I satisfactory?" she asked.

"Very," he lied.

"You're a terrible liar, sensei," she said warmly. "But I'll let it go. After all, I was thinking about someone else while you were fucking me, just like you were." And with that, she opened the door, peeked out to see whether anyone was in the hallway, and then quickly headed out, closing the door behind her.

Takamichi spent a few fruitless moments trying to determine whether that revelation had been intended to be kind or cruel. He gave up. He supposed that one didn't become a successful member of the student council without becoming a master of mixed messages. He got up and padded over to the door to lock it, since it didn't lock itself after closing.

That done, he picked up his pants from where they'd been dropped on the floor the previous night as he'd brought her into the room, kissing and caressing and tearing each other's clothes off. His wallet was still in his pocket, and he pulled it out to get a hundred yen coin out of the coin pouch and dump it in the jar by the door. Another day of sobiety, he thought. Normally, he'd put it in before he went out for the day, but since he had no plans to go anywhere or do anything until much later today, he might as well reward himself for yesterday.

Then he went back to bed. He wasn't scheduled to do any patrol duty until this evening, thankfully. Probably, he should spend some time going over the lesson plans for the classes that started next week, but he just couldn't get motivated.

Bright orange hair. Just like Asuna's.

He had to stop thinking about her. Especially now that Arika had been freed from her captivity. She hadn't exactly said anything, but their brief conversations led him to believe that she suspected him of having been involved in her capture. She would surely not want him involved with her ... kindred ... any more than he had to be.

And the unfortunate part was, he couldn't even be sure that she was wrong to do so.

Had Gateau betrayed the trust Nagi and Arika had placed in him? His master had not confided in him about such matters. The attack that claimed his life had come as a total surprise to them both; at least, that was what he had thought at the time. But looking back, hadn't there been some signs that not all was well? And then there was Gateau's insistence that Asuna was better off without her memories of him. She was certainly better off without the memories of what she had escaped, but without the memories of the closest thing she'd ever had to a father?

But he had obeyed his master's last command, and all his regrets about it would change absolutely nothing.

Unfortunately, among the things that could not be changed was his desire for her. It had led him into repeated folly, not just last night, but before then as well. She had grown up so much, become such a beautiful young woman. The year he had been her teacher had been an excruciating torment for him. And not simply because her mind was slow in catching up to her exquisite form. The temptation she represented for him ... in the end, he had failed to overcome it.

Fortunately, that failure, that singular failure, had given him the strength to walk away before he failed again. And Negi had been the beneficiary of that decision. Yet even that had backfired, in a way, as she had continued to flourish and grow under Negi's teaching as she hadn't under his.

There was a certain amount of envy in his considerations about that subject, it had to be admitted. Negi had inherited an impossible situation - a student afraid of men given a male teacher, one plotting against the entire order on which Mahora's structure rested, a one for whom fifteen years had not sufficed to make her grow up, a trio of demons, and Asuna, beautiful, childish, wonderful Asuna - and triumphed over it. Far more than his victory in the ring, Takamichi respected Negi for that victory. And, yes, envied it.

Could that kind of envy have driven his master to betrayal? Who could say?

His thoughts were disrupted by the buzzing of his cell phone. Frowning at the early morning call, he picked it up and answered it without bothering to check the caller display. "Hello?" he growled.

"Takamichi?" Shizuna's voice sounded troubled and embarrassed. "I'm sorry to be calling you this early. Did I wake you?"

As always, hers was a soothing presence. "No, no, I was already awake, just lounging about aimlessly. What seems to be the matter?"

"It's the headmaster. He told me to call you immediately and tell you to come to his office ASAP. He's very angry about something, Takamichi. I'm thinking it must have something to do with Evangeline's latest scam."

Takamichi grimaced. Given Konemon's weird friendship with Evangeline, one wouldn't think that he needed a sounding board about her. And yet, every time she did anything, the headmaster turned to him and demanded his input. As though subjective years spent training in her resort gave him some sort of insight into her.

Well, perhaps he did have some insight, since he doubted that Konoemon knew what her face looked like when she was experiencing orgasm. But he wasn't about to share that particular bit of information with anyone, especially his employer.

"I'll be there in ten or so," he said, deciding to skip his shower. Konoemon would just have to live with the consequences of demanding haste.

* * *

Ten or so minutes later, Takamichi walked briskly through the double doors to the headmaster's office. "Takahata, reporting as -" he started to say.

"Sit down," said Konoemon's voice. The old man was seated in his chair behind his desk, with its back turned towards the entrance, as though looking out the window rather than towards the person who had just entered his office.

Takamichi blinked. There were no chairs in front of the desk. Was he expected to - well, clearly, he was. He promptly knelt in the seiza position, and waited to be addressed.

A few moments later, Konoemon turned the chair around and regarded him with a grim, angry expression that added several years to his already ancient face. "Takahata," he said, rather than using the more familiar Takamichi-kun to which he was entitled. "I am very much aware of how much you contribute to this school by your presence here. Your activities on behalf of the AAA and the Mahora Mage order are remarkable, as is your work as a teacher. You are respected and admired by your students, as well as your colleagues."

Something was terribly wrong, Takamichi knew. The headmaster's tone was out of step with his words; whatever the reason he'd been brought here was, it was not to be buttered up.

"Considering all of this, I have been inclined to overlook occasional unsubstantiated rumors concerning your activities in your private life. They were, as I have already said, unsubstantiated, after all. The fault, perhaps, is mine, then. Perhaps, had I confronted you before now, we would not be in this unfortunate situation."

Oh no. Takamichi groaned inwardly. He couldn't mean -

"You will please answer the following question directly," Konoemon snapped. "Did you, a little over a year and a half ago, engage in sexual relations with one Konoe Konoka, a fourteen year old member of class 1-A, a student under your care, and my grand-daughter?"

It was all over. "Yes, sir," he said quietly.

"Knowingly? Voluntarily?" Konoemon continued to snap out questions.

"Yes, sir," Takamichi replied.

"'Yes, sir.'" Konoemon repeated, mocking without a trace of humor in his tone. "You say this so calmly and serenely. You easily and readily admit to a criminal act, one that personally affects me. You assaulted a member of my family, one whom I personally placed in your care. Will you at least have the courtesy to tell me why you did this contemptible, despicable thing?"

"Yes, sir. I was drunk." An hour of pleasure, and now, officially, began the lifetime of regret.

Konoemon waited a moment, to see whether there would be anything further, before speaking in a very quiet, precise voice. "Are you actually attempting to claim drunkenness as an exculpating circumstance?"

"No, sir. Not exculpatory. Only explanatory. Had I not been drunk, the circumstances under which I assaulted Konoka-san would not have arisen." He remembered ...

_He begins drinking that afternoon, after his last class of the day is done. He has been craving the taste of fine scotch ever since he saw her radiantly accepting birthday plaudits from her classmates. She has no notion that it isn't her birthday, that the date on the records is the date she was brought through the gate to this world. A birth of sorts, but not the true birth._

_And from that moment, the urge to tell her everything begins. He's not sure how the alcohol comes into it. Perhaps he thinks that if he drinks himself into a stupor, he won't be able to do it. Alas. Gateau taught him just a little too well, and so his capacity for intoxication is appropriately high. So he only becomes drunk enough that telling her everything seems like a marvelous idea._

_So he marches, or stumbles, across campus, and his reputation is such that no one tries to stop him. And he knocks on the door, and it opens._

_Asuna isn't there, Konoka tells him. Ayaka has invited her and a few other classmates she wants to overawe over to her house for a party that is definitely not in celebration of the birthday of any obnoxious monkey girls. Konoka was invited, but her fortune-telling club ran overtime, and so she couldn't make it._

_So instead, she listens to him ramble drunkenly about Asuna, understanding perhaps one word in ten. But eventually, when he winds down, she pats his hand and tells him that it's all right. Asuna likes him, too, just like he likes her. While he's stumbling over a way to clarify matters, she sighs and says she wishes that someone liked her like that, but perhaps she just isn't pretty enough. He clumsily assures her that she's very pretty._

_She asks him if he's telling the truth, and purses her lips._

_His inhibitions are lowered. It is a rotten excuse, but there it is. He leans forward to kiss her, intending perhaps to kiss her cheek, but ending up rubbing tongues. And her hand is down in his slacks, having removed his trousers and belt when he started drinking, and her grip is firm yet gentle._

_Within a very short while, she is slamming her hips down towards his as his hands reach up to clutch at her small breasts, riding him with a look of ecstatic transport on her face. He retains enough presence of mind to think there's something wrong with that, to wonder why she takes such pleasure in controlling him, but he doesn't have nearly enough presence of mind to stop himself from driving a warm burst of his essence up towards her womb._

_Afterwards, of course, with adrenaline burning off the alcohol, he is horrified and quickly makes his exit just before Asuna returns ... pausing to wish her a happy birthday and say absolutely nothing about her past. With this act, he has demonstrated once and for all that he is completely unworthy of her._

_It is the last time he drinks._

"You've pissed it all away, you realize?" Konoemon's voice interrupted his ruminations. The old man sounded less angry and more mournful. "You've thrown your whole life away, and you won't even bother to offer an excuse beyond simple drunkenness. Why her, Takamichi? My granddaughter, a girl who's already suffered such things?"

His head jerked up. "What do you mean?"

"You didn't even bother to find that out, did you?" Konoemon nearly snarled. "I'm beginning to think that it was a mistake to ever let you be a teacher in the first place."

This new anger didn't last long, though, and he was grieving again when he spoke next. "If it were anyone else, I'd still have to fire you, but I could have helped you, found you a job that didn't involve contact with children, done something. Why did you have to make me hate you?" And now there was a faintly pleading note to his tone.

"I've said all there is to say," Takamichi stated. Anything further would probably not be believed, or would damage Konoka's honor. He'd done that enough already.

Konoemon shook his head, wearily. "You are removed from your position here at Mahora Academy, effective immediately. I will be taking steps to inform the AAA of your actions, and I have no doubt that they will act to fire you at their next assembly. Furthermore, your lease on your apartment is contingent on maintaining your status as a teacher here, and so it is cancelled, effective immediately. I would suggest," he continued, with grave formality, "that you start cleaning it out, and then get out of my town before I take it into my head to settle the dispute between us more permanently."

Takamichi rose from his position on the floor, then bowed deeply, before turning and walking out the door to the old man's office for the last time ever.

Despite Konoemon's suggestion, he didn't head right back to his apartment to start packing up. He felt a bit fey, really, as though, if the old man meant his subtle threat seriously, he was quite ready to die. Better, then, to spend a few moments strolling among the familiar sights of the Academy. He passed by the Chao Bao Zi, considered having a final meal, but decided not to trouble its gentle manager with his presence.

Since that gentle manager was presently dealing with Rakan's legendary appetite for food, she would probably have appreciated the gesture had she known about it.

He walked along the tree-lined paths, breathing in their summer scents for the last time.

"Takahata," said a familiar voice from behind him.

Ah. So this was how it was to end. Slowly he turned to face Konoe Eishun squarely. "Eishun-sama," he said politely. "I take it that you are aware of my disgrace."

"I am. My daughter told me what you did." The swordmaster had no sword, but Takamichi was perfectly aware that the Shinmeiryuu included plenty of unarmed techniques. He had never formally tested himself against a true master.

Nor would he do so today. "I am prepared for whatever punishment you feel is appropriate, Eishun-sama," he said formally, as the other man began to walk towards him. "If the only way that I can atone for my misdeeds is in blood, then -"

Much more quickly than he was expecting, Eishun was in front of him, and raising a hand up to ... rest it on his shoulder, in a familiar, avuncular manner. "None of that, Takahata. I am sure that father-in-law has punished you enough. I won't add to it."

Takamichi blinked. "That's ... astoundingly merciful, sir," he said.

"Not at all. Besides, I sympathize. I've had her myself, and I know just how seductive and tempting she can be," Eishun said blandly.

And now he felt his stomach and intestines slowly filling with ice. "What," he asked quietly.

"Perhaps we can share her sometime," Eishun continued, as though Takamichi hadn't said anything. "Her and that lovesick bodyguard of hers. You're always welcome at our house, Takahata. And we hope you'll stay for a visit very soon. But right now, I'd suggest you should probably leave campus before reports of your activities become widely known. Fighting off lynch mobs is so tiresome, don't you agree?"

The hand on his shoulder gripped it in a rather painful manner, then released it as Eishun stepped back. "Be seeing you," he said as he stepped past the poleaxed ex-teacher and kept right on walking as Takamichi slowly turned to stare at his back.

_What?_ Takamichi thought. _No, no, this makes no sense. Setting aside how furious he should be with me, he would never ever do such things. Not to his own daughter!_

Wait. He'd claimed that Konoka had told him. Not that Konoka had told him and the Headmaster. Had he been the one to tell Konoemon? That, that might explain a few things ... but it didn't explain his odd behavior just now. It was tempting to return to the Headmaster's office and report what had just happened ... but under the circumstances, he wouldn't believed. It might even make matters worse for him!

The only thing to do was to go to the one person who might believe him, and the one who'd shown repeatedly that he could do the things that Takamichi could not.

He headed for the dormitory where Negi lived. A few moments later, he was knocking on their door, just a bit frantically.

The door opened, revealing Arika in a housecoat and slippers. "Takahata," she said, with chill politeness. "What seems to be the matter?"

"I need to speak to Negi. It's very urgent," he explained.

She lifted an eyebrow and held open the door allowing him to brush past her as he entered the room. He found it deserted, with a cloak lying on the kotatsu. "Where are -"

"That's Kaede-san's artifact, Tengu no Kakuremino," Arika explained as she shut the door and followed him in. "Negi and some of his partners are having a strategy session with Mana-san in the cloak's cottage."

"A strategy session?" Takamichi asked.

"A strategy session," Arika confirmed.

* * *

"Say it! Say that I'm the best lover you've ever had!" Mana nearly shrieked as she pistoned her fingers into Kaede's wet core.

"Nrgh! Not even in the top five!" Kaede hissed in reply as she bent down to savagely bite at Mana's nearest nipple as the two of them grappled furiously on the floor in front of the house's kitchen stove. "Fuuka and Fumika love this one harder than you do!"

Negi tried very hard to keep an eye on the two of them, for fear that they might really hurt each other, but it was hard to focus as he sat on the edge of the kitchen table with Asuna's mouth bobbing up and down on him, not to mention the distraction presented by Konoka's nubile form as Setsuna ground down on her on the other side of the table.

_So much for the strategy session,_ he thought wearily.

* * *

"Well, regardless, I need to talk to him, and it is very -"

"Urgent, you said. Forgive me, but I think I'll be the judge of what's urgent where my son is concerned," Arika said, sitting down on the bottom bunk and crossing her legs. "What's the matter, Takahata?"

He drew in a deep breath. "I've been fired from my position at Mahora due to the discovery of a certain indiscretion I committed a little while ago," he began.

"You mean how you had sex with Konoka-san," Arika interrupted. "Yes, I'm aware of the incident. She mentioned it in passing. You have my sympathies for the loss of your job, but I'm not sure what you think Negi can do about it."

"That's not the problem," Takamichi continued, wondering how it had been mentioned in passing. Not to mention wondering at Arika's sang-froid. "That's just the prelude. Konoemon-sensei is understandably furious about it, but when I was confronted by Eishun-sama, he ... he acted as though it was a joke. He even claimed that he'd also had relations with Konoka," he added, softly.

"And?" Arika asked.

"Don't you find that a bit odd?"

"Takahata. You know how Asuna came to be, correct?" she asked wearily.

"That, that and this are two completely different situations!" Takahata nearly shouted.

"Be that as it may, I'm not seeing your cause for concern."

"Do you really think a father would act that way if his daughter had been molested?"

Arika let out a disgusted noise. "There are all manner of fathers in the world. What I wonder is whether he was trying to provoke some sort of reaction from you, perhaps getting you to admit to other incidents of wrong-doing by posing as one who shares your 'interests'. Had you admitted to it, he would probably have killed you. I think you are making something of nothing," she said dismissively.

"Do you really think Eishun-sama would -"

"I think Eishun has changed, in many ways from the way he was when I knew him," Arika interrupted, shrugging. "Some ways for the better, some ways for the worse. What I describe is a fairly common social feint, something that someone with his responsibilities might well use." She paused. "Come to that, though, I was under the impression that he was heading back to Kyoto."

"He's still here, I just spoke with him," Takamichi pressed. "Please, Arika-sama, I am telling you that something very wrong is happening. I'm asking you to please trust my instincts!"

From her frown, he saw that he'd made a mistake. "It is very difficult to trust the instincts of one whom one does not trust, Takahata," she said, standing up as she did so.

He closed his eyes. "Yes, I suppose that would be the case. I can't prove that my master didn't betray you, and I suppose that I am tainted -"

"Nor can you prove that you yourself did not," Arika interrupted again, this time softly.

Takamichi's eyes snapped open and he stared at her. "Me?" he asked hoarsely. "But, but I wasn't even entrusted with your secret. I couldn't have ..."

She shook her head and he trailed off. "You realize, of course, that the only person who can confirm that you were never told the secret is dead," she said quietly. "And even your own memories cannot truly be trusted, Takahata. Gateau was always too fast on the draw when it came to memory manipulation, and I have seen signs that you are the same way. How hard would it be for you to modify your own memories?"

All that Takamichi could do for a moment was just stare at her with his jaw dropped.

There was a knock on the door. "Negiiii?" Ayaka's voice asked. "Are you in there?" She kept it up for about a minute before the silence apparently convinced her that there was no one within the room.

"We're done, here," Arika said into the stillness that followed. Her face softened a bit. "I will tell Negi about what you told me, about your concerns. I will indicate that I think they're groundless, but I will let my son make his own decisions and his own plans. That is the best I can do for you, Takahata."

"It's not enough ..." he answered.

"It has to be." She gestured silently towards the door.

Takamichi turned and slowly walked out of the dorm room, not seeing Arika let the housecoat fall and dive nakedly into the cloak's open portal. He walked away from the dormitory building, and he was halfway to his destination before he realized where his footsteps were leading him.

He had exactly one option remaining to him.

A few moments later, he was knocking on Evangeline's cabin door, hoping against hope that she hadn't completely retreated into her resort. His desperation eased slightly as the door silently swung open without apparent cause. He walked forward into building. "Eva-s- Evangeline-san?" he called out, remembering at the last moment her disapproval of his earlier informality.

"I'm in here," came a voice from her bedroom.

Swallowing, he walked into the bedroom to find her lounging on her bed in her usual black teddy and panties, reading a book that he recognized as Lolita. He flinched as she glanced towards him, then turned back to her book as she spoke. "How are you enjoying unemployment?"

"So you know?" he said.

"What an absurd question. I know everything I care to know," she answered disdainfully.

"Evangeline-san, are you aware that -"

"Yes, Konoemon was told by Eishun, who phrased it as though Konoka sobbingly confessed it to him, though that's not the way that it happened," she said absently.

Takamichi frowned. "What do you mean?"

"None of your business, that's what I mean," Evangeline replied.

"Evangeline-san, something very wrong is happening here, and I think Eishun-sama is a part of it," Takamichi said, almost pleadingly. "He was ... bragging about how he had also molested Konoka, and then he ..." He trailed off, searching for some way to phrase what had happened in a way that Evangeline wouldn't be able to ignore.

At the very least, his tone got her to set down the book and look directly at him. "Bragging, you say? That is a bit odd. When it happened, and just before he left, he was regretful. Not enough to not do it, but still ... odd."

Takamichi's jaw dropped. "When it - Eva, are you telling me -"

"You'd be surprised how many people are venturing beyond taboo lately," Evangeline replied, yawning. "It's almost become boring. But even if that's the case, it means nothing to me. Bad things are happening? _I_ am a bad thing - why should I care?"

"Because this is your home," he reminded her.

"That I didn't choose," she snapped. "That I had forced on me by someone who treated me like a bad cold he wanted to forget! You and the rest can all go to hell as far as I care!" She sniffed, and turned her head.

"If you really meant that, the door wouldn't have opened in the first place," Takamichi said.

"Maybe I wanted to bully you a little," she sneered, still not looking at him.

"All right. Fine. Be that way. I am not asking you to help me, Evangeline." He took a deep breath, went down on one knee, and lifted a hand. "I come before you as a supplicant, beseeching you for sanctuary."

"Sanctuary," she repeated tonelessly.

"Yes. I will investigate these events myself, but I require a safe place from which to conduct my investigations. My home is lost to me; I beseech you to allow me to share yours."

An evil smile spread across Evangeline's face as sheb finally turned to look at him. "There is a price for asking such favors of evil magi, you know. Oh, what am I saying, of course you know. You've paid that price before. Eagerly, as I recall."'

He nodded once, not trusting himself to speak.

"I grant your request for sanctuary," she said, venomously sweet, as she reached down and undid the string of her panties. "You will begin paying the price immediately."

He started to nod, then paused, and said, "Wait. Aren't you going to change to your -"

"I can't do that out here, remember?" she said sharply. "Out here I'm just a ten year old girl with a very dirty mind."

"Then shouldn't we -" He gestured towards the stairs to the basement, and the resort by implication.

"No," she said.

"But -"

"This is my price. Pay it or get out." She started to unfasten the teddy as he watched.

This was not what he had expected to happen. He'd had sex with Evangeline, even lost his virginity to her, but only when she was in the glamorous form of an adult. The thought of what he was about to do sickened him.

Slowly, he slid off his jacket, loosened his tie and pulled it over his head, and undid the buttons of his shirt, one by one, exposing his scarred chest to her view.

"Nice," she said appreciatively.

He held himself back from flinching at her words. The pants came off next. He left the boxers on as he came over to kneel on the bed before her, leaning down between her spread legs, looking down at the hairless mound between them.

And that's where he froze.

"Come on, Taka-kun," she cooed. "You're not thinking I'm innocent, are you? You know better. That ship sailed long before you were even born. I have out Messalina'd Messalina in my time. What's one more notch on my bed post? Or yours?"

Choking back a sob, he leaned forward, preparing to press his lips to her vulva ... but couldn't stop himself from retching just once before -

A knee slammed into the side of his head, knocking him off the bed. He lay on the floor, dazed, for a moment, and then got up unsteadily.

Evangeline had sat up, her arms in front of her tiny breasts, looking at him angrily. "It makes you physically ill to be with me like this," she snapped.

"Yes, dammit!" he retrorted. "You're. A. Child!"

"And what about Konoka, hmm?" she sneered. "Weren't so virtuous then, were we?"

"I was drunk! I made a mistake! I will pay for it for the rest of my life if I have to, but I will not be worse than I am!"

She stared at him for a moment, then lifted one of her hands to her face. "Of all the times to recover your idealism ..." she muttered. "I really do feel old."

"Well, you're not!" Takamichi snapped, and ignored her glare at him to continue. "And you don't even get it, do you. That's why Nagi didn't take you as a lover. He was smart enough to see through the glamor, and through your bullshit, to see that underneath it all, you're a little girl! The men who passed through your life and between your legs, they were monsters, however virtuous they might have seemed. But we're not all monsters!"

"Oh, shut up," Evangeline said wearily. "Do you really think I don't know all this?"

"I think you choose to ignore it when it suits you. Are we done here? Am I going to have to find another sanctuary?" Shakti, maybe? If he explained what had happened, she might find it in her heart -

"No," Evangeline said. "You can stay in my resort. I will help you as I can."

He blinked. "Why?"

"Because you're right. You're not a monster." She smiled faintly. "And I admire those who have principles, even though I have none myself. Congratulations. The price of my help was a test. And you passed, Taka-kun."

He didn't feel like a winner, as all that had happened finally crashed into him, wiping away what little equanimity he had left. But as he let himself collapse by her bedside, and felt her hand tentatively reach out to caress his shoulders, he felt as though he finally had a fighting chance to do the right thing.

Probably it wouldn't work. But he'd still try.

_NEXT: Chachamaru_


	30. Side-Story -- Mana Redux

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is primarily the work of OverMaster.

As Arika walked into the small kitchen, fully naked, her bare feet making no sounds as they took calculated steps headed straight for her children. She noticed Negi was coming to a climax into Asuna's mouth, his hands pressing down against the table as his body shook up and down. Asuna lapped and swallowed his seed greedily, trying to gather it all and not spill a single drop. She managed to do it with surprising success. Arika's lessons had born fruit.

"I see," the blond woman declared calmly, "You have resolved the situation that has been bothering us all, since you have taken this long hiatus from the discussion of all matters involved with it."

Konoka hummed happily, her face still half-buried into a gasping Setsuna's crotch, her small hands keeping her lover's legs spreaded. "Well, we're all human, after all. We need a breather here and there. And you have made your way here naked, after all, Arika-sama," she noted delicately.

Far from being offended by such an obvious insinuation, the former Queen smiled. "That is because I know you well. Youth is the same everywhere, after all. And it is true that, often, a relaxed and sated mind will work better than a pressured one. I believe a couple hours of this will do us good."

Asuna rose up from between Negi's legs, hugging Arika and mashing her breasts against hers, kissing her mouth and allowing some of the sperm contained into her mouth to slip into Arika's. "I was saving it for you," she said. "But I'd have taken it all if you had been a single moment longer."

Her mother swallowed before pecking Asuna's lips softly. "I always had good timing," she said. Her eyes travelled to the two panting figures in the corner. "Now, what have we here?"

Mana panted raspily as she stood over Kaede's naked and prone form. "Had enough now, bitch?"

The shinobi shuddered, but still managed to keep her wide, insolent smile on. "Oh, you mean that you have finished? One didn't even feel you starting."

"That's because you're a frigid and bland lover," Mana knelt over her with a feral smirk, her eyes glinting. She licked one of her fingers and slid it up the small ring of Kaede's anus, causing her partner to squirm and clench her teeth. "But that's okay; I'll eventually break you, somehow. Does this make you any hotter, huh?" She pumped the finger up and down. "Not so in self control now, are you, Nagase?"

"Nyergh," came the only reply.

Everyone else, even Konoka and Setsuna, had paused in their activities to look at them, eventually prompting the fully nude mercenary to stop what she was doing and glare back at them. "What?"

Asuna smiled and walked to her side, kneeling down next to her, smiling as her unbound orange hair to brush all over Mana's face as her hands caressed her spine. "Has anyone ever told you you're drop dead sexy, Mana-chan?"

The gunslinger scowled. "This week? No."

"Well, Negi seems to think so, as well." Asuna gestured at the appreciative boy, who stared with huge wide eyes, his member quickly regaining stiffness despite the fact that no one was touching it. Arika stood at his side with a half-amused expression.

"Negiiii?" Asuna hummed. "Why don't you come here and give Mana-chan some payment over her recent assistance? Kaede seems to be... indisposed for now, after all." She glanced at the ninja weakly twitching on the floor, her toes moving at random intervals as she bit on her lower lip, still trying to deny Mana the vocal signs of her orgasms.

"Me?" Negi gulped. "Oh, no, no. I mean, not unless the Command— I mean, Mana-san, wanted me to -—"

Mana stood up, showing her full frontal nudity to him without any real shame. "Why wouldn't I want you to?" she asked.

He sweated under her even gaze. "Well, y-you never asked, so ..."

Mana shrugged, making her large round breasts bounce a bit. "I dislike 'asking' for things. I prefer knowing I have earned them. But if you have no issues sharing your body with me ..."

"Of, of course I don't," he said, feeling it was the least offensive thing she could be told under those ... extreme circumstances. The fact his hormones were yelling at him to ravish her helped, too. "So, um, if you really want -—"

"Yeah. Why not?" she smirked. And then she was on him, pushing him back down on the table, her eyes glowing eerily as her demonic transformation began. "But not like your sisters or your mother. I want this all the way. And I'll pay in the same coin, so we're even. Deal?"

He nodded, and both his voice and eyes gained determination. "Deal."

He allowed himself to go into Lightning State, the air around them crackling with raw power, forcing Asuna and Konoka to step back. Arika and Setsuna stood still, watching with fascinated interest, as did Kaede as she regained awareness of her surroundings. Negi grabbed Mana's wrists and began to slowly guide himself against her entrance.

Tatsumiya growled and pushed herself down on him, taking him deeply. "Not like that! Not gently. I don't like it soft! Show me the same power you showed the Averruncus! Show me you're really better than my father!"

"Okay," he said, pulling down on her arms to force her head down, kissing her lips wildly as he started to pump in and out forcefully. Mana hummed into his mouth, liking this better already.

Asuna felt the kitchen's floor starting to quake. "Hey, what is this -—"

"It is ... simply wonderful!" Konoka breathed out with starry pupils,

"Like watching two gods making love," Setsuna mused quietly.

Negi huffed and puffed and Mana moaned bestially as they ground against each other, fair skin rubbing dark skin, their sweaty bodies melting into one. Like fantastic animals in heat, they mated with quick, powerful abandon, not even noticing when the table cracked and broke under them. Negi fell on his butt on the floor and Mana fell on him, impaling herself even more, driving her to claw at his shoulders, leaving large red slashes on them.

"You gotta be kidding me," Asuna said with a wide open mouth.

By now, the glasses were falling down and shattering one after another. Then the plates fell off their shelves, Setsuna and Kaede catching them in midair only when it was clear they could hurt someone. Other than that, they were too entranced by the show to do anything else.

"Mana! MANA!" Negi howled, speeding his pace even more, so fast Asuna only could see his hips as a blur, his testicles making a constant slapping sound against Mana's backside.

The shockwaves shook the whole house, then the cloak which contained it. And then the table on which the cloak rested ...

Then Makie, who was strolling near the dorm, felt as if the ground had trembled under her feet for only a moment. As Negi reached orgasm, burying himself deep into Mana and biting on one nipple to control his own screaming, Makie almost lost balance for a moment.

The pink haired girl regained stability, then shuddered, feeling mild relief over the sudden new calm of the ground beneath her. "That was scary!"

Inside the Artifact, Negi panted for air while his right hand massaged Mana's back lovingly. He loved them all, after all. "That, that was..." He couldn't find the words.

"World shaking," Kaede, Asuna, Konoka, Setsuna and Arika agreed, as they got back to their feet.

Mana smiled back at Kaede. "Try to top that, if you can."

For once, the ninja's easygoing expression turned into a frown. "Step aside."

That night, the Narutakis couldn't help noticing she was walking far too strangely when she made it back home.

The twins didn't need to ask, however. They only shared a mischievous giggle as she dropped in bed, asking them to stay silent.


	31. Chachamaru

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is primarily the work of OverMaster

"You can take off that hangman's noose, Itoshiki-sensei," Konoemon Konoe said, with a dry, jaded edge to his voice, which was usually quite cheerful despite his age. At the moment, he sounded as if all those years had finally caught on him.

"My apologies," the much younger man with black hair replied, undoing the rope tied around his neck and sheepishly placing it down on his lap. "I was, well, in the middle of an attempt when I received your call."

"Itoshiki-sensei, believe me when I say, out of all the souls in this school, you are one of those with the least reasons to hate life," the old man mused briefly.

"I beg your pardon?" He blinked behind his glasses, his attention caught by the unusual, in more than one way, statement.

"Itoshiki Nozomu-sensei," the Headmaster spoke, his low, pondering voice a toned down counterpart to the one he had used in his earlier talk with Takamichi. "By now, you surely have heard about Takahata-sen- Takahata's recent removal from his office and post, haven't you?"

"Yes, sir," he replied truthfully.

"Have you been informed of the reasons for such a decision?" the old man asked, his voice barely above a whisper, and seemingly not by choice.

Now Itoshiki was concerned. "Are you feeling well, Konoemon-sensei?"

"Well enough for the tasks at hand. Just answer my question."

"N-No," he shook his head. "None of us has -"

"What is the overall consensus of your colleagues?"

"Ahhhhh ..."

"You can reply honestly, Itoshiki-sensei. To be frank, I'd strongly suggest it. I won't punish you over the truth. It's lies I have resolved to correct."

The younger man spoke faster now. "Kuroi-sensei, Nitta-sensei, Fujisawa-sensei, and Tanizaki-sensei have theorized it might be because of improper contact with students."

Konoemon sighed. The biggest truths were so often in the mouths of the greatest fools. "And what is your opinion, Itoshiki-sensei?"

"My opinion on the matter is irrelevant."

"I still wish to hear it."

He breathed much deeper. "It is no secret to anyone I hold no affection for him. However, I cannot believe he would engage in such activities."

"I see." Konoemon pondered.

There was an abnormally long pause.

"He did, didn't he?" Nozomu asked at last.

"Yes."

"Shit." The normally well-spoken and refined teacher permitted himself a slip of the tongue.

"Yes, that too. Itoshiki-sensei, you are to take charge of his Art lessons until a fitting replacement can be found."

"Sir, with all due respect, I would like to decline that generous offer. Our mutual dislike is well known, and I have no desires to have my reputation tarnished by suspicions that I am taking advantage of his downfall."

The old man sighed. "It was not a suggestion, Itoshiki-sensei."

"My apologies again."

"Itoshiki-sensei." The Dean stood up and walked to the window, turning his back on him. "Please forgive me. I shouldn't be taking my frustrations out on you. I know, despite the interest several of your students have in you, that you would never take advantage of them."

"Sir, I'd rather die!"

"I know." Konoemon didn't feel like pointing out that Itoshiki was well known to prefer death to everything. "That's why you have stayed at your position, after all. 3-F is not an easy or enviable post, and I'm grateful for your efforts."

"Your words honor this lowly servant of the overwhelming duties of education." The perpetually depressed man bowed.

"I know I can trust you, can I not?"

"To the best of my pitiful capacities, yes, Sir."

"Yes, yes. You would carry any secret given you, under a promise of honor, to the grave, wouldn't you?"

A nod. "To a hopefully early one, yes."

The old man hunched over as if every fiber of his being ached. "In my own way, I have been as bad as Takamichi," he admitted.

"Sir?" Itoshiki's eyes were nearly bulging through the lenses of his glasses at that statement.

"Even after what happened that time, I kept on pressing her to go on those omiais." His wrinkled hands clutched the window's lower frame. "I believed a quick memory erasing spell would suffice. I thought it would wipe everything away. Like an accomplice who tries to hide a criminal's handwork, I brought shame upon myself and her by trusting her to that person ..."

"To Takamichi?" Itoshiki still didn't understand.

"No, not only to him. To the first one, the worst one."

And then the younger man's brow twitched in suspicion, and rising anger. "What happened to your granddaughter?"

The old man's voice was tiny, broken, now. "I ruined her life. Thrice. First by entrusting her to the first one. Then by acting as if nothing had happened. And then, by entrusting her to him."

Itoshiki stood up. "Sensei!"

"A memory wipe affects only the conscious mind, but the seeds of the damage remain under the surface, don't they?"

"A wound is never healed just by covering it up," the suicidal teacher confirmed.

"And those with particularly high levels of magic can remember everything after some time ..."

The man cursed with the inability to die almost wished he could pity his superior now. But somehow, all the sympathies in his tired, jaded soul now went only to the man's granddaughter.

"I'm in despair," Konoemon whispered. "My grievous mistakes have left me in despair."

* * *

"Hakase-sempai, you have a call!" a young man announced from the other end of the lab.

"Huh?" The black haired student made a short pause in her instrumental calibration, looking up with blinking absent eyes. "At this time? How strange. Give me just a few minutes to finish here, will you, Jim-kun?"

Several long minutes later, she finally made it to the phone, picking it up after meticulously wiping her hands clean with a cloth. Luckily, her caller had infinite patience.

"Good afternoon, Hakase-san," said the soft, familiar voice on the other end of the line.

"Chachamaru!" Satomi blinked, surprised about the caller's identity. She had supposed it was Haruna again; since learning about their blood ties, the mangaka had made a few clumsy attempts to get closer to her, albeit if not in the way Hakase had originally suggested. "Is there something wrong? Why haven't you called me through our private channel, or visited me here if you need something?"

"The private channel might not be safe to use anymore," Chachamaru cryptically offered, "And I don't wish to wander far from Home right now. I am currently ... needed. But I have been allowed some free time today. That's why I need to talk privately with you, Negi-sensei and Chisame-san today. I ... don't know when I will be able to do so again."

"Sensei, Chisame and me?" Hakase repeated dubiously. "Well, I had plans for the rest of the day, but I can cancel them for you. However, regarding Negi-sensei ... well, considering recent events that I've become aware of, I don't believe her mother will be very open to the possibility of social interaction with you."

"I will handle that ... inconvenience with Arika-sama," her creation reassured her. "In addition, I have already contacted Chisame-san, and obtained an agreement to a meeting from her. I promise the Master will not be involved."

"Uh. Sure." Hakase nodded to herself, her curiosity piqued. "Where will we meet, then?"

"Negi-sensei's living quarters."

"... you are very sure you'll be able to convince his mother, aren't you?"

"In two hours."

"Very, very, very sure, I see."

"I believe I have a high likelihood of success," the gynoid revealed without fake modesty. "Arika-sama is, after all, despite her emotional nature and uncommon views on familiar relationships, a logical and reasonable person. So I shall frame my arguments in a logical and rational fashion."

"I see," Hakase nodded with pride. Her baby daughter had advanced - or rather, grown so much.

The younger boy approached her with a fair level of apprehension. "Hakase-sempai? Why are you crying while clenching your fists?"

"You won't understand it until you become a mother!"

"B-But I'm a boy!"

"Precisely what I mean."

* * *

Hakase had barely finished ringing on the door to Asuna's dorm when Lady Arika herself opened for her. While she was normally oblivious to such things, the genius couldn't help being a bit intimidated by the woman's imposing, elegant presence and stature. They'd barely exchanged more than two full sentences before this meeting, but she still knew Negi-sensei's mother was a woman you should treat with the utmost respect at all times.

So she bowed, with her eternal formal clumsiness. "Arika-sama."

"Welcome, Hakase Satomi," she spoke evenly, stepping aside to allow her access. Hakase thanked her with a nod, soon finding Negi and an uncomfortable-looking Chisame sitting around the breakfast table. "Hello, Sensei, Hasegawa-san. I'm not late, am I?"

"Not for this once, " Chisame grumbled, offering her a chair. "Sit down."

As she obeyed, Negi gave her a typical kind smile. "How are you, Hakase-san?"

"As well as I can be under the current, average circumstances, " she said. "Which is to say, as well as ever."

Chisame sighed. "You lead a really easy life, you know?"

"I have realized that lately, yes, " Hakase admitted with uncharacteristic personal insight, even as Arika poured her a cup of tea. "Oh, thank you. But you shouldn't -"

"I am not a Queen anymore, " Arika reminded her calmly. "And even if I still were, my obligations to provide hospitality would remain. Please enjoy your drink."

"Oh, naturally!" She took the first sip and looked around, finally noticing something unusual. "Where are Asuna-san and Konoka-san?"

"This meeting did not involve them, so I sent my daughter away with Sakurazaki-san, " Arika sat down next to Hakase and poured herself another cup. "Obviously, Konoe-san followed them. If I know them well, and I do, they are currently enjoying each other's company."

"Ah. Of course, " Satomi blandly said. It was impossible to say for sure if she got the not-all-that subtle meaning of Arika's words or not. In any case, the door's bell rang again right then.

"It is her." Arika walked for the door without any hesitation, opening it to show she hadn't been wrong. Chachamaru stood at the doorstep looking down humbly, with her hands crossed over her lap, wearing a solid black dress.

"Welcome, Karakuri-san," the former Queen said, without any particular vitriol or fondness in her voice.

Negi and Hakase, on the other hand, smiled widely at her. (Chisame silently looked away.)

"Chachamaru-san!"

"Chachamaru! It relieves me to confirm you are still operating at full capacity!"

"Hello, everyone. Thanks for being here, and I beg for your pardon on summoning you all here, " the gynoid bowed with heartfelt politeness. "May I come in?" she asked. "I promise I won't take long."

"Please do. Otherwise, you truly would have wasted our time." The blond woman stepped back, giving her free access.

As Chachamaru entered, her eyes met Chisame's wary ones, and she looked away, seemingly in shame. "Thank you," she said, as she hesitantly accepted the chair Negi had just offered her, and then the five of them were all sitting around the table, waiting for Chachamaru to start.

So she did. "I have come to say goodbye," she said softly but clearly, her tone never faltering.

To her own surprise, Chisame broke the silence that fell after that remark. "Goodbye? Where the heck are you going, and why -"

"Chachamaru-san, why would you ever - " Negi began to speak before Hakase slammed her hands down on the table, interrupting him with unusual vehemency.

"Chachamaru! Now listen to me, will you! For the last few months, I have overlooked your nonsensical displays of utterly illogical behavior, but now you're taking it too far! I know you have been struggling to balance your new-found emotions, and I realize that such a conflict is not something I can help you sort out through standard scientific procedure, so I have respected your wishes and allowed you to try and cope with them as you deem convenient! But this, this -"

Her face never betraying displeasure at the outburst, Chachamaru held a palm up, quietly begging for silence. Hakase seethed, but sat back down all the same.

"Thanks you." The gynoid bowed humbly. "Hakase-san. Mother," she added, using the word she'd never before dared to say, making her creator squirm and nearly blush. "I understand your disapproval of this decision. But I still have to do it. For all your sakes, most likely. You, Sensei and Hasegawa-san are three of the four people I value the most in the world. But you all have each other, while the Master only has me." She paused, reflected, then added, "And Sister. But Sister is not exactly the best of influences on her."

"Wait a second!" Chisame barked. "I knew this would be about freaking damn Evangeline, but why would you leave with her, or for her, now? What the hell is she planning, and why does she need you for it?"

"I don't know," Chachamaru said. "It's not my place to question. And if I did, I would get no answers that would be helpful for you. All I know is, the Master will need me closely around her at least until the next term's start. Most likely longer."

"You are holding back," Arika said with even coldness. "Speak further."

Chachamaru's fingers softly tapped on her own knees without even realizing it. "I have what I believe could be called a bad feeling. Although you, Hakase-san - mother," she repeated. "- would most likely simply call it a random result of several linked stressful events forcing a series of unwanted and pessimistic adjustments to my future estimations and protocols for planning ahead."

"You lost me at 'a bad feeling'," Chisame admitted.

"You are talking as if you thought we'll never meet again." Negi smiled at the gynoid, or at least tried to. "Honestly, we've been through much worse before!"

"With all due respect, Sensei ... I have found that being physically ripped apart doesn't hurt as much as being torn apart between loyalties," Chachamaru quietly mused.

Chisame huffed. "I can't freaking believe it. Even after all of this, you haven't grown up where it matters the most! Look, if you're really becoming so human, then do what a true human would! Stand up to Eva and tell her you won't take her crap anymore! You'll never become a true human being as long as you fool yourself still believing you're nothing but a subservient machine for your so-called master"

"You are mistaken, Chisame-san," the green haired girl protested, as softly as someone can protest while still being firm without any place for doubt. "I do not make this decision as a machine, but as a companion, and, yes, as a friend as well. I am unaware of the Master's current full purposes, but I highly doubt they will bring you any harm - "

"[i]Yes, of course![/i]" Chisame stood up now, shouting at her. "Just like she didn't hurt us at all when she locked us up and used us as bait! Yes, that was so much fun, I had waited all my life for it!"

"Chisame-san," Negi pleaded.

"No, Negi!" the hacker said. "It needs to be said! With Eva, everything is Might Makes Right! We all know it, but we never dare to talk on it, and yes, I know it's useless, but at least, I don't want to be told anymore how she deserves mercy and how deep-down kind she is when she uses us as she pleases at the slightest turn of her whims!"

"You feel betrayed," Chachamaru said with a nod.

Chisame looked at her, holding back tears while biting her lower lip. "No! Really? What gave you that impression, Chachamaru? Oh, I know! Maybe the fact I went to you when my heart was broken, telling you everything, trying my best to actually believe in Eva's good side, entrusting myself to her, to you ... only to be tossed up into a cell like unwanted crap as soon as she saw it fit! Betrayed? Yeah, I guess that might be a good word for it!"

Chachamaru lowered her head. "I apologize."

Chisame sat back, wiping tears off and looking aside as Negi tried to console her. "That won't do, and you know it."

"Yes," Chachamaru agreed. "It will never do. It never could. Still, in any event ... I'm very glad for those days we spent together. Before that happened. They were very, very sweet." There was an inhumanly long pause, and she added, "I love you."

Chisame sniffed angrily, refusing to acknowledge the bush on her cheek. "But you'll always love her more than all of us put together."

"Perhaps," Karakuri softly admitted.

"Chachamaru!" Satomi gasped.

Arika crossed her fingers before her face, in a way reminiscent of a very manipulative but very perceptive man she'd known. "Karakuri."

"Yes?"

"Should it happen that your Master's desires opposed the well-being of my children, and that of those close to them, which would you pick over the other?"

"Master would not -"

"Just answer my hypothetical query, Karakuri, " the Queen of Calamity instructed with chilling calm.

"The well-being of your children," she answered without hesitation.

"Yeah, just like that time. You have a very conveniently loose sense of our well-being, don't you?" Chisame accused.

Chachamaru didn't answer.

Finally, she just stood up. "I'll be going now. I apologize for everything."

"Wait, you can't just go like that!" Hakase grabbed her by a sleeve. "You aren't making any sense anymore! Let me talk with Evangeline-san! There must be something -"

But then she felt one of Negi's hands on her shoulder. "Please, let her go. This is something she needs to do by herself, " he said.

"What?" the genius gasped. "What in the world - "

Chachamaru looked at him. "You understand."

He nodded. "Yes, I do. Neither condoning, nor condemning. I won't try to stop you, Chachamaru-san. You need to make your own decisions. If those decisions happen to coincide with the Master's, so be it. As long as you know you do it because you, and not Evangeline, wants it so."

"I do," she promised.

"Then go," he told her. "And come back to us when you can. Just promise you will come back."

"I will try. That is the best I can promise," she replied.

He nodded again, not pressing it any further. "I see. When I decided to take our Master's path in Magia Erebea, I did it because I wanted to, not because she wanted it. In your own way, you are the same."

"I suppose so."

"Then make her ... and yourself ... proud and happy," he asked.

The robot smiled, and leaned down to kiss his lips. "Thanks for everything, Negi-sensei. Mother," She bowed for the stunned Hakase. "Chisame-san." She hugged the frazzled, confused girl and kissed her forehead gently.

Very briefly, Chisame returned the hug, muttering something neither Negi nor Satomi could make out, under her breath. Chachamaru quietly answered in the same way. Whatever she said left Chisame visibly shaken.

"Arika-sama. I thank you for your hospitality and understanding," Chachamaru said with an air of finality.

Arika said nothing, instead just guiding her for the door with an unreadable expression.

Negi stood stoically as Arika closed the door behind her, Hakase slumping down in a confused mess, and Chisame still looking away and trying to hide her face.

His mother walked back to the table, sighed, and sat down again.

"I think we need to make a few things clear," she began. "I will start by saying this: Evangeline is an unpredictable opponent like few I have ever met before. We even cannot be sure of exactly how, when or if she is actually going to act against us. However, it is my opinion that she has not gone this far only to stop her schemes, whatever they may exactly be, right now. Even assuming Karakuri came here out of her own volition, and not because she was told to do so, her master might very well have manipulated her into that conclusion, without Karakuri even realizing it. Evangeline knows her well enough for that, and she is crafty and well-versed in the arts of manipulation."

_It takes one to know one,_ Chisame thought bitterly.

"Yes it does," Arika said calmly, eyeing her half-empty cup in an unreadable way.

Chisame jolted. "Are you reading my -"

"No. But that observation was plain to see on your face. And it's correct."

Negi lowered his head. "This isn't getting us anywhere. It's just a tug of war that is harming Chachamaru-san, and already hurt Chisame-san, Nodoka-san, Iin-- Ayaka and Chizuru-san. Confronting the Master openly is useless, but at the same time, just playing her game isn't really doing anything either. She has us in the defensive, but any move we make before she plays her hand would only worsen the situation. If we could just reach out to her somehow, convince her to stop whatever she's trying to accomplish ..."

"I'd feel better if you didn't keep calling her 'Master'," Chisame muttered.

"Sorry," Negi said with an awkward grin, hand behind his head.

"In a way, I can empathize with her," Arika mused. "Like her, I had to make several walls around myself after life's woes taught me their hardest lessons. But her walls have slowly crushed her soul between them. I can tell she is afraid of letting them down; at this point of her life, she cannot and does not know how to live without them."

Hakase scratched her head. "Do you mean her superiority complex?"

"In a way, it is well justified, " Arika shrugged. "Like young Hasegawa-san has said, Might Makes Right, far too often. We may dislike it, but that is the way the world tends to work."

"Mother!" Negi protested.

She raised a finger. "I have not said it is the way the world _should_ work. Changing that is what your father set off to accomplish, and also your ultimate goal in life, even if you haven't realized it yet."

"That still doesn't tell us what to do next, " Chisame pointed out.

"My son just said it himself. We wait," the adult woman spoke flatly. "We prepare ourselves, but we will not raise our hands until she has raised hers, if she actually intends to. I have few doubts that she does, but that is only my personal opinion. If she acts, we will use her force against her. We will adapt to her initiatives, and we will counter them as best as we can."

"I will help, if it helps Chachamaru!" Hakase offered.

The tall woman gave the petite girl a brief dubious glance, but then her son looked at her with firm eyes and a nod, and she relented.

"So be it," the former Queen accepted. "You know Karakuri better than any of us, after all, and you once worked along Evangeline."

"Admittedly I didn't know she was an actual vampire at the time," Satomi pointed out.

"That is inconsequential now," Arika said. "So, what is your stance on this, Hasegawa-san? Will you stand at your brother's side again?"

Satomi blinked. When she'd interviewed Chizuru the other day, the girl had mentioned that Ayaka and Chisame were both Negi's half-sisters. She was startled, though, by Arika's casual reference to it.

Chisame sighed. "When you put it that way, I can't refuse without looking like a complete heel, can I?"

"This is not about what you will look like, child," Arika said sternly. "Public images are the last thing one should ever worry about."

_Spoken like a woman who fucks her own son,_ Chisame thought.

"It is about doing the right thing," Arika continued.

_Then again, maybe not._

"About doing the thing you want to do," the sovereign continued. "If you wish to try and return to a normal life, we will not hold that against you. But can you live with yourself if -"

"Oh, just shut up already," Chisame retorted wearily.

"Chisame-san!" Negi gasped. Arika said nothing, instead waiting for the younger woman to continue. Hakase only stared with very round eyes.

"I'll never return to a normal life, and you know it. I am the Thousand Master's daughter, and that alone marks me forever. And all of you have put me on a path of no return. So please don't offend my intelligence trying to tempt me with a choice we all know I lack.

"And yes, even so, even if I could, I wouldn't go back to those days. Satisfied? I've known that for sure ever since Zazie's sister told me ... never mind that now. I don't want to fool myself anymore. I'm tired of that crap. I'm as abnormal as they come, and you know what? I don't care anymore!

"I've had sex with a vampire and my half sister and freaking Jack Rakan, and kissed with that robot that just went off! I've been inside the Internet and to a Magic World on Mars! I'm weirder than that Suzumiya weirdo! And I'll never be normal again even if I tried and tried for the rest of my life!" She drew in a breath. "But that's okay, because I don't give a shit! I'm strange, and I like it!"

"Chisame-san!" Negi moved to gently, hesitantly rub her right shoulder. She grabbed his hand, keeping it in place with surprising tenderness.

"And I like you," she added, much more softly.

"Who's Jack Rakan again?" Hakase asked bewilderedly. "One of your friends from that other world?"

Arika silenced her with a finger over her own lips as she looked straight at Chisame. "Not many have ever dared to use such a tone with me," she said quietly, ominously.

"I told you. I'm weird." Chisame looked away again.

But the woman grabbed her chin and softly turned her head so as to meet her gaze with her mismatched eyes. And she smiled. "I've always liked 'weird' people."

Looking at this girl's eyes, Arika could feel her heart warming up again. They were so different from her father's, and yet so similar. "I want you to join our family, Chisame," she said, noticeably dropping the honorific. "You have seen what happens to a person who allows the walls around their heart to make them their captive. You are blood of my beloved's blood - both of them. And there is far more worth in you than you realize."

The brown haired girl's lips trembled as the adult caressed her cheeks gently. "I ... this is not, not only weird, I could live with that ... but ... wrong ..."

"So?" Arika questioned. "Is it what your heart desires?"

She turned to give the silent, expectant Negi a brief look, then closed her eyes and blushed. "Yes."

The woman spoke again. "And it is what your heart desires as well, my son?"

"Yes," Negi nodded immediately.

"And mine as well," the woman said, then leaned ahead. Chisame understood and pouted her mouth, surrendering herself to the wonderful insanity that was claiming her. It was her birthright, after all. Then those soft lips touched hers, and she somehow felt a huge weight being lifted off her.

Hakase's pupils had shrunk down to pinpoints. Even after all she had recently been through, this was still, in layman terms, bizarre as hell. "Oh, my. Well. I believe I should be going," Hakase coughed, standing up and bowing for Negi. "Have a, a good evening, Sensei. Perhaps we will continue our discussion tomorrow ..."

"Um, yes, of course," he nodded, smiling bashfully, trying to act as if his mother and his half-sister weren't frenching passionately right before them.

As Satomi passed near them on her way to the door, however, one of Arika's hands reached over, grabbing her by a sleeve. The woman pulled her head back from a moaning Chisame's lips, licking and swallowing the thin bridge of saliva linking their mouths before addressing the puzzled young scientist.

"Do you really wish to leave so quickly, Hakase Satomi?"

The black haired girl stared in mild confusion. "Well, naturally, it would be rude for me to stay, since you obviously will need your ... privacy ..."

"Privacy is something shared between comrades," the blonde lectured, keeping her other arm wrapped around Chisame's waist to hold her in place. The hacker looked on with noticeable confusion herself, and Negi didn't fare much better. "You have already expressed your desire to establish a stronger link of camaraderie with us in this hour of need. And while shared intimacy is not a requirement for us to accept your offer, if you truly are a friend and ally of our family, you are welcome to share our company on all levels."

"Ah?" Hakase had to blink. Genius though she was, she still was sorely lacking in the field of the come-on.

"I think she wants you to join in," Chisame explained, not really that frazzled anymore. After all she had been through, having Hakase tossed into the mix seemed like small potatoes in comparison.

"Join. In." Satomi mouthed the two words as her face grew pale. Even when she had proposed sex to Haruna, she had been reasonably sure she'd be rejected, and when she had been with Chao, it was okay because they were so close, but other than that, she never had been concerned or interested in a steady sexual life with anyone else. And now there was this admittedly attractive and commanding older woman, suddenly inviting her to partake on sexual activity with her son and his half sister, both of whom were awfully good-looking, and ... ohhhhh.

"Uh, as she said, no one is forcing you to -" Negi began, picking up on her anxiety.

Hakase looked down. "I'm not afraid!" she sputtered an overly quick denial, before turning back into the room and sitting down again. "I, I believe I'll just stay here and watch for now. Assuming no one minds, of course. It may be, uh, illuminating. I believe it was Da Vinci who said 'Nothing that is human is alien to me,' and one who hopes to follow in his footsteps should not shy away from anything seen during their researches."

Chisame frowned. "Since when are you an expert on anything but robotics and mechanics?"

Hakase pushed her fogged glasses up her nose. "Since you started actually getting up from your computer!"

Hasegawa grimaced. "Oh, you're going to pay for that one later!" It was just like old times; she had roomed with the girl during her first year, and they'd ended up driving each other slightly bonkers.

Arika chuckled, ever as her hands unbuttoned the front of Chisame's shirt, pulling it off her body and neatly setting it aside. "It pleases me to see you are more relaxed now. Pay attention, Negi, and you as well, Hakase-san. This is how you do proper foreplay," she said as she softly nibbled on Chisame's collarbone,

"Ah," Chisame shuddered. It felt very different from Evangeline's sharp biting, yet no less delightfully torturous.

Arika's hands skillfully unclasped her simple white bra, freeing the small but perfectly shaped pale breasts. Negi softly breathed out in reverent expectation, and Hakase fought the urge to start taking notes. Then again, where to begin? That was a very different situation from her habitual range of expertise.

Then she remembered Chao's words. _Only relax and forget the method, just enjoy it naturally, as it comes to you._

Chisame was fumbling with Arika's own sweater, pulling it up her head. It didn't shock anyone to see she had been topless under it.

Negi started to uneasily loosen his collar without even noticing it.

Arika and Chisame necked and shared kisses at a steadily increasing pace, their hands running over each others' bodies, gravitating around the hips and buttocks. In the race to pull their skirts down, Arika's experience won, letting her finish it first.

They carefully stepped out of the skirts, Arika guiding the young woman closer to her classmate and their teacher. Both of the latter recoiled a bit, instinctively suspecting an incoming twist. They were proved right when Arika shot them a saucy look and smile over Chisame's shoulder.

"Negi. Satomi." She skipped over the formalities now. "Come here. Theory without practice amounts to nothing. Be good children and help us with the last parts of our garments, if you please." To emphasize her point, Arika's hands squeezed Chisame's panty-covered rear, getting another moan and blush from her.

"Well, I -" Negi began to reply dubiously

"I, you see, the thing is -" Satomi also hesitated, uncontrollably twiddling her fingers together.

Then they looked at each other, shared a wordless question, and finished by shrugging with resignation at the same time.

Negi sighed and unbuttoned his shirt, leaving it aside as he walked. For the first time, Hakase got a good view of his well toned, mildly scarred torso, and found herself actually liking what she saw. He lowered his pants and boxers down, walking out of them as he reached the trembling and silent Chisame, his boyhood springing into sight, half-stiff already. He put his hands on Chisame's hips gently, whispering a question. "Are you really sure you want this?"

"Yes. Yes, I do. I want you, Negi." There was no hesitation in her voice, despite her nervousness.

He exhaled. "Very well." And pulled the panties down.

"Ahem," Arika rasped, pulling Hakase out of her fascinated stupor as she watched the small boy come together with the much taller girl.

"Oh, ah, I'm sorry!" the small girl babbled, waddling over to her side, undressing clumsily as she did so, because it seemed the thing to do at the time. Somehow, she already was fully nude by the time she reached the adult, her heart beating maddeningly as she tugged the lacy undergarments all the way down.

"Finally." Arika smiled triumphantly, and then tackled the pale frail female to the floor, pinning her with her shapely body and beginning to plant wet hungry kisses all over her face.

"Wait a minute, I, ahhh ..." Satomi's voice came out strangled as Arika's fingers pushed between her thighs, making their way to her entrance, "I, ohhhh, thought we had agreed, I'd only watch for now," she belatedly objected.

The blonde favored her with a sultry look. "I never said a word of agreement to that. I never even implied agreement."

"Oh. No, I guess you didn't," Hakase gasped as the fingers began to piston in and out, in and out. "Oh, oh, ah, eh. Just as good as Chao," she appraised, starting to run her fingers through Arika's golden mane.

"Naturally," the Queen smirked proudly. "It runs in our family."

And then she slid her tongue into Satomi's mouth.

Over on the other side of the room, Chisame had slowy turned around to face Negi. Well, not exactly face since he was shorter than her. With a barely audible groan that came out more like a sigh, she crouched down to land a brief, soft kiss on his lips. "Negi," she said.

"Yes, Chisame?" He too dropped the honorific. It wouldn't do anymore.

"If we're going to do, well, this, I want for it to count. Look, I'm not asking for you to love me like Asuna, but if it's going to be just a quickie, a one night thing then left behind ... I don't want it," she said. "I know it may sound selfish, but if I'm going to fall, I'm freaking falling all the way. Okay?"

He caressed her cheeks with his thumbs, faintly smiling at her. "Chisame, if you really aren't sure -"

"No, no! I told you, I'm sure I want it! It's just, it's just it'll hurt even more if you go away after we're done. Not after all we have learned we have in common. Everything we share, and now this. I want to be there for you, even if this gets you in disgrace, or gets you fired ... but in turn, I also want you to be there for me. Because really, I-I don't have anyone else in the - "

Then a few shrill yelps interrupted her. "Oh, yes! Yes! Oh, my! Arika-sama!!"

Chisame angrily looked back at where Satomi clutched onto the carpet, her hips rocking back and forth while Negi's mother ate her out. "Hakase, can you keep it down? I'm trying to confess here!"

"Soooo-oh-oh-oh-oorry! Chi-sa-me-san!" the genius punctuated each syllabe with a tiny climax, and kicked around madly.

"Geez, what a noisy wench." Hasegawa shook her head, returning her attentions to Negi. "Okay, basically, if I'm going to be your sister-slash-lover, I want you to take responsibility for corrupting me!" Okay, so it had been Eva who had started that, but go try making that kind of demands on her.

Negi swallowed and nodded stiffly. "Okay."

"Because you've turned all our lives onto a path of no return, and you can't just turn around and walk off into the horizon once our studies are over," Chisame began to lecture him, waving a finger. "You broke us, you pay for us. I'll never, I'll never love anyone as much as I love you." She blushed even more, "S-So I don't really want to be left with your memory and nothing else, okay? And - oh my God, just look at all the emotional blackmail crap I'm spouting. I'm the worst -"

Arika briefly paused in her licking of Hakase's core. "You cannot force my son to do anything. He can take his own decisions now. Just like he is free to walk into a battle to death, he is able to walk in or out of a relationship. So feel free to ask as you wish. In the end, the decision is his, and he must learn to cope with such questions. So, by all means, pose yours."

"More, more, I want more," Hakase whimpered. Arika returned to pleasing her.

Negi chuckled and caressed the hair of the confused tsundere. "I understand. Of course you would want a commitment. It would be shallow not to do so, if you are putting that much emotional involvement into it."

Chisame looked dubiously at him. "Wow. That's a new one. Since when do you have any clue what's going through a girl's mind?"

He sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. "Well, um, I have been in much closer contact with them recently," he admitted.

"How many?" the girl asked.

"Mother, Asuna, Setsuna, Ayaka, Mana and Kaede," the boy confessed.

Chisame pointed at her bare chest and said, "Eva, Rakan and Ayaka. Ayaka is really good at it, isn't she?"

"Very," he admitted.

"Fine. Let's see if I compare, then," Chisame laid on her back on the floor. The room was small enough so her head was almost touching Hakase's. "I'm ready. Whenever you want."

"O-Okay," he advanced towards her, placing his hands on either side of her, and then lowering himself towards her.

She stopped him putting a hand on his chest. "So, what about that commitment?" she reminded him.

"You know you'll always have a place with us," he promised. "With me."

And she smiled. "Just wanted to be sure. Go in." She kissed his mouth again, growing even bolder.

Arika smirked. That girl knew how to grab a man by the figurative balls. Maybe she could have used a bit of that in her own time. It might have kept Nagi at her side. Well, maybe she could learn something from her now.

Negi drew a very breath in and then began to worm his stiff member into Chisame's opening, feeling her grow rigid and gasp under him, her hands gripping his shoulders. Slowly, very slowly, he settled in, making small sounds of comforting nature as he held her close. He could see tears in her face. "Does it hurt?" he whispered.

She shook her head. "No. Not anymore," she said, kissing him on the cheek again. "Eva was rough, and Rakan was very big. It's just, it's just, now this, this feels so ..." She allowed the dreaded word to come out. "Right."

Yes, she was taking her 11 year old half-bother and teacher in her vagina without a condom. And everything felt right, for the first time in her life.

"Tell me I'm cute. And pretty." She twitched as he began to pound just a bit faster into her.

"You're very, very, very cute and pretty," he replied obediently, his breath growing somewhat faster as well.

"Tell me you love me, as much as I love you." She tightened her hug, greedily keeping him against herself, kissing his neck as they struggled to find a comfortable position despite their size difference.

"I love you," he said. Not as much as Asuna, but he loved her very dearly. He loved her blunt honesty, her even cold stares, the cute soft curves of her mouth when she smiled, the small acne marks on her cheeks, her unyielding loyalty. "I love you so much, Chisame."

"Oh, yes," she hissed, taking her head back. He wasn't as big as Rakan was, by any stretch, but he still was big enough to fill her narrow lower entrance. And unlike her previous lovers, he was so tender, so loving. Even with Ayaka, passion had prevailed over mushy comfort, but with Negi, it was ... different. Softer and kinder. She found out she liked it better that way.

She hadn't realized Hakase had reached her own screaming orgasm until she felt her breath on her face, and then Hakase was leaning her face against her, clumsily, sloppily kissing her mouth, and Negi's as well when it came close in unison with his pumps. Why was Hakase kissing her? Did it matter anymore? Probably not, she shrugged mentally before kissing back, enjoying the taste of her lips, both of them and Negi melding their mouths together at random intervals, and oh dear, it was so glorious!

Arika sat on watching with amusement as her son grew so close to two new lovers. He had learned so much, and grown so daring and bold in such a short while. She felt as proud of her own lessons as of his acceptance and adaptability to them.

"Chisame. I'm, I'm, ahh, maybe I should, should -" he sputtered.

"Inside. Inside!" She threw logic, reason and fear to the wind, wrapping her legs around his waist, pushing her feet against his buttcheeks, her finger nails scratching at his skin. "Inside! I want it!" she demanded, and she was rewarded as he screamed.

"Chisame!"

"Oh! Negi!" The mere feeling of the liquid splashing into her, and the ideas of everything that implied, was enough to push her into an orgasm of her own.

She heard a few tender loving words from his lips and muttered a few of her own in trade. But then, the next thing she fully realized, Arika was crawling over her, caressing her lower stomach to right above her vaginal conduit. The blonde had a faint smile on her mouth. It was an odd smile, Chisame thought, as though it hid more than it revealed.

"What's ... wrong ..." the teenager asked between gasps for breath

"Wrong? Absolutely nothing," the woman said in what sounded like a satisfied tone before kissing her. "I approve fully of your allegiance to my son as of now. Allow me, then, to seal our familiar union with a deeper, closer contact..."

She couldn't help but hum, her treacherous hormones taking over again. "Thank you, Mother," she sighed, beginning to kiss her back.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hakase eagerly crawling on all fours to a panting, half-recovering Negi. And she felt a pang of jealousy again, but she squashed it down. He had earned it, after all.

Negi swallowed as he sat back, with his hands' palms planted on the floor, and Hakase half-groggily crawled at him, with a dumb smile on her face.

"Hakase-san," he finally said.

"Yes, Sensei?" she asked. His mother had undone her braids previously, and now her jet black hair hung loose over her shoulders, framing her face almost perfectly. He had to admit she looked very cute that way.

"Are you really sure you want to do this?" he asked. "Maybe, maybe you should save ... this for someone who is actually much closer to you."

Her head hung down for a moment. "I don't have anyone like that. Not anymore."

"But you could find someone, maybe sooner than you think," Negi gently insisted.

Hakase shook her head. "No. I'm not the kind of person who makes close acquaintances easily, and you know it. It's okay. I doubt I'll ever get closer to any male than I've gotten with you, so ..."

Negi blinked a few times. He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't find the right words to say what he wanted to. For once, however, Hakase correctly guessed his intentions.

"I know, I know," she said. "I haven't been especially close to you, or to anyone in your inner circle but Chachamaru. I know I never gave any signs of interest. I cannot honestly say I love you, not the way your partners do. But I do like you, yes. I doubt I'll ever meet another man like you, and that's okay, really. I'm not that interested, but I still would like to attempt it at least once. And there seems to be no better candidate than you."

"Hakase-san, this isn't a step that can be taken lightly."

She huffed, putting a hand on her chest. "I will let you know I take this decision fully aware of all its implications! Perhaps it will bring us closer, and I wouldn't reject the notion. Perhaps it will pull us further apart, and I will live with it. But regardless the outcome, I still desire to give it a chance. Before your partners fully take you away. I don't care about the ways society looks at me, never have. My mother was a single mother, and they say history tends to repeat itself. Technically, I suppose it already has," she mused aloud, thinking of how she'd felt when Chachamaru had called her that.

Negi gulped. There they were again, talking about parenthood while about to have intercourse with him. It scared far him more than the prospect of a fight against the Lifemaker, all the Averrunci, Graff Herrman and Dynamis all at once.

"Hakase-san, I - "

She shook her head and put a finger on his lips. "No. Call me 'Satomi' now, please," she requested, and then leaned ahead to kiss his lips.

His will to resist mostly melted away as he felt the warmth of her mouth on his, but still lasted enough to allow him asking, as soon as they broke the kiss, "Are you sure you won't regret it?"

She nodded and smiled. "After all, it's not like I'm commiting incest!"

Chisame groaned from where she laid with Arika on top of her, rubbing her vulva masterfully against hers. "Ngh. Funny, Prof. Oh! Very funny. Oh, mother!"

Negi breathed in very deeply and softly pushed Hakase on her back, being extremely careful and gentle. The girl was physically frail, more than any of his previous lovers; even Ayaka had fighting training of her own, and Chisame had received basic self defense training at the resort sessions. He couldn't cut loose on her the way he did with Mana or Kaede. But that was okay; often, holding back also held a fascinating allure of its own, retarding the climax and extending the pleasure.

"This might hurt," he warned. "If you feel you cannot take it, tell me and I'll stop."

Hakase nodded, biting her lower lip. Focusing his mind and holding her close against his heart, he entered her slowly, hearing her low hiss of pain.

Despite all the things she had done with Chao, she still had a hymen; the other girl had been careful enough to avoid breaking it in their games. Once, Hakase had asked why; Chao only smiled and said she'd better save it for someone else.

Ah, now she fully understood, struggling past the pain and hugging him back. "Don't stop, please. I'm okay," she promised bravely, holding sharp tears back.

He kissed her large forehead, so tenderly, she felt something alien and new in her heart. "You feel very good," he whispered, and the troubling feeling grew bigger.

He started to move in and out very slowly, and the sheer pleasure took over. She was a woman now, his woman. And it was a stupid, primitive thing to think, but somehow, it fit in the primal, raw context of copulation. She decided to stop overanalyzing the situation just this once and began to scream her pleasure once again.

"Oh, Negi! Ooohhh, Negiiiii! Negi! Negi! Negi!"

Chisame groaned as Arika grounded her into another orgasm, trembling in her arms. Hakase was being so loud again it was distracting. As Chisame looked at them, she noticed Satomi's small size was an actual advantage for Negi. They were closer in size than he had been with any of his previous lovers, and that made easier for him to play with and lick her small nipples as he pounced on her, making her screams to rise in a steady crescendo.

It was kinda hot, actually.

"Asuna likes to watch, as well." Arika lay flat on her stomach next to her, running a hand down her smooth sweaty back, until reaching the soft curves of Chisame's buttocks and teasing her anus with a finger.

The girl cringed just a bit. "Watch out, please! I'm still a little sore from when Rakan put it there!"

"It only gets resistant with enough practice," Arika shrugged, adding another finger in. Chisame yelped, but did not actively resist.

Now Negi was hammering into Hakase as fast as he could without hurting her, forgetting all pretenses of caution. Literally. Satomi herself wasn't too concerned either, since she was too busy reeling from an intense orgasm before he reached his.

"Ne... Negi!" she shouted, clutching him to herself and burying him even deeper.

The whole amount of sensations was enough to make Negi ejaculate, filling her up as much as he could. "S-Satomi," he trembled, shame and fear sinking back in for a moment before being washed back by post coital bliss.

They remained connected for a few moments, kissing tenderly, before rolling back with their fingers still intertwined, panting hoarsely.

"You are astounding," she confessed.

"Th-Thanks. You too." He nodded like a broken doll.

"A maiden's first private dance with a man should always be special," Arika mused, rolling closer, pulling Chisame along. For a brief moment, a hand of the tall woman brushed over Hakase's lower belly, making her way up to her bellybutton, her fingernails toying with it as Arika smirked. "Ah. Lightning strikes twice."

"Huh?" Hakase asked blankly.

"Never mind," the woman said. "For now, I believe we all have earned a good night of rest. Especially you, my son." Which didn't stop her from bending down to kiss him passionately.

Negi nodded, too tired to disagree or to say anything else, period.

Chisame mumbled, worming her way over a blinking Hakase. "Wimps. Me, I still have fuel for one more go. Don't you, Prof?"

"Ahhh?" Satomi said before Chisame started lapping at her small breasts like a hungry kitten. Then her brain lost all logical capacity again.

Arika smirked. Well, those two would surely fit for what she had planned.

* * *

Chachamaru walked down the cherry lane, never making a sound.

The site of their first skirmish with Negi-sensei. The root of both a long standing conflict and a few precious friendships.

She took a moment to gently un-hang Itoshiki-sensei from his usual self-destruction spot, calmly remind him life was worth living after all, and then send him on his way back home before continuing walking.

Yes, life was worth living, no matter how harsh it seemed at times. That was the real reason why she kept going on. That, and loyalty. Both sets of it.

It didn't matter if her own life never could be, despite everything, that of an actual human being. She knew she never could be Sensei's mate, bear his children and grow old with him. She'd still do her best for him and the Master. Of course, doing both things at once was proving so hard to do.

Two children ran past her. "Good evening, Chachamaru!"

"Good evening. Don't stay out late." She waved back. They had grown up a lot through the past year. The world was changing, everywhere, perhaps for better, perhaps for worse. Chachamaru knew it was pointless to complain about it.

She flew over campus for a while, drinking inn its sights for a (hopefully not) final time. The World Tree stood proudly over everything, just like always. From up there, she could see the lights on at the Chao Bao Zi, and considered going there to help for the night, but decided against it. Her remaining time was far too short, after all. A shame. She would have liked to see Yotsuba-san again.

Chachamaru felt a strange disturbance in her ratio of neural activity as she oversaw the campus. Was it nostalgia? She had not felt true nostalgia before, or at least that was what she could collect from her conversations and comparisons with her own life experiences. She had too little of a past to feel nostalgic for. Until now. She felt even sadder than she had felt when Chao left.

Chao ...

She landed near the labs, and silently made her way in through the front gate. Visiting hours were over, but she always had a passcard ready.

"Oh, good evening, Chachamaru-san!" The only sempai left working at the place, a black haired young man with glasses, waved at her from where he was working on a robotic squid commissioned by a toy company. "Looking for Hakase-san? She hasn't come by all day long."

"Good evening to you too, Kazuya-sempai, " she bowed. "Don't worry about me. I half expected Hakase-san's absence." In truth, she had no idea what could be keeping her creator away so long. In mid-flight, she had tried contacting her room, but she wasn't there. Chachamaru wondered if she still was with Negi-sensei, and what would they be doing at the time.

She visited the laboratory where she had been activated for the first time ever. Her birth place. She almost could see Chao and Hakase there again, standing next to the table, with Master Evangeline standing further away, in a corner, arms crossed, looking away. She remembered her two creators' faces of pride and happiness, the first things she ever saw.

She caressed the table's cold surface with a hand. "Goodbye," she whispered.

Chachamaru flew out again, reassuring herself she was making the right decision. It was the best for everyone. For Chisame. For Satomi. For Negi.

Her friend. Her mother. Her love.

Now she'd leave them living their lives as best as they could, without her interference, and go back to the being who was her friend, her lover and mother figure all at once. Her Master. She who, like herself, would never grow up or old. They had no choice but staying together. Humanity would always be denied them.

But first, she had one last thing to do.

She landed near the grocery store and bought a few cans of cat food, telling Saito-san to keep the change, and thanking him for all his kindness through the last couple of years. The boy asked her if she was going on a trip again. She nodded.

Then she walked over to the last place in the long list of warm sites she'd always treasure in her memories. The old abandoned lot. A sign had just been placed next to it. Mahora Lex-Mart coming here-Soon!

Everything was changing. Everything.

She fed the kittens one final time, smiling as she did so, hugging and petting them one by one. "Goodbye, Kuro-san. Goodbye, Yoruichi-san. Goodbye, Chompy-san. Goodbye, Blair-san. Goodbye, Mayo-san."

Then she picked the litter of the smallest, youngest ones, and carried them back to the Academy, their soft mewlings being the only sound as she walked. She finally arrived to her intended destination and rang on the door.

"Hello?" A small cute face peeked out the door. "Oh, good evening, Chachamaru-san. May I help you?"

She bowed. "Good evening, Mei-san. Forgive my intrusion, but I have a very important favor to ask from you."

"Karakuri-san?" Takane D. Goodman had emerged from the shower, wearing only a bath robe and a towel wrapped around her hair, as Mei led the gynoid inside. "What are you doing here?"

It was extremely unusual to have any of 3-A's students, much less Karakuri, there. To Takane's ever- suspicious mind, that only could mean an announcement of distressing consequences, especially in the wake of Takahata-sensei's mysterious dismissal.

"She says she wants to leave these kittens with us," Mei offered sheepishly, holding the small litter up for Takane to see.

The tall blonde wrinkled her small nose. "These kittens? Aren't they the ones you always look after, Karakuri-san? Why should we keep them now? Why can't you - " Then she narrowed her eyes. "What's going to keep you so busy?"

"I'm not fully sure myself." The robot bowed, apparently considering that enough of a good evening greeting in this case. "I only know I shouldn't be available for at least the span of the next week. The Master wants me to stay close to her and home at all times."

"And you're going to tell me you honestly don't know why?" the young woman nearly sneered.

"Yes. I don't know the details. Mine is not to question, but to obey, as long as - "

Takane waved a hand. "Please, don't even finish that sentence. Subservience sickens me."

For no particular reason, Mei coughed.

"I hope you understand, Karakuri-san, if McDowell-san is planning any action that goes against the order and structure of this institution, we are obliged to - "

"You don't need to worry about that," Chachamaru replied.

"Oh, seriously? And why is that, if you claim no knowledge of exactly what is she up to?" Takane pressed further, while Mei made an awkward face.

The gynoid lowered her head. "I trust her."

"That isn't exactly a popular opinion around here, you know," Takane said, evenly, but also very coldly.

"I know," Chachamaru said.

"And there are good, valid reasons for its unpopularity," the blonde continued.

"Perhaps," Chachamaru conceded.

"Then, may I ask, why do you expect us to share your certainty of her good intentions?" Takane added, hands on her shapely hips.

"The same reason why I am entrusting the cats to you. Because you both have good hearts."

"Very often, a good heart must avoid being a trusting heart, Karakuri-san," Takane sternly said. "When trust continues for no good reasons, it stops being a virtue and becomes a vice."

"The Master has not given you any good reasons to doubt her, " Karakuri pointed out. Technically she was not lying; she had not harmed them at all, and she doubted Ala Alba had told them about Ayaka and the others' captivity, or about Nodoka's actions.

Still, Takane looked like she simply suspected. No; somehow, somewhere inside of her, she knew.

"I'll be blunt," she said. "Does this have anything to do with Takahata-sensei's firing?"

"We had no involvement in any events leading to Takahata-sensei's dismissal," the gynoid stated.

"That doesn't actually answer my query," Takane's stare grew fiercer.

Chachamaru just fell silent, as if her brain had crashed, like a cheap old computer. Or as if shame prevented her from talking.

But then Takane only sighed. "Forget it. Even I cannot wring water out of a rock. But be assured, we will be getting ready for any treachery your master might be cooking up."

"I wouldn't expect any less," Chachamaru almost sounded thankful. "But, the kittens?"

"If Mei has no problem with them being here, neither will I," the high school senior replied.

"I don't!" Mei rushed to say. "They're still very young, and they need care!"

"Yes. Their mother was ran over by a car while I was ... away, " Chachamaru said with obvious sorrow. "Thank you so very much for your cooperation."

"Think nothing of it," Mei smiled.

Chachamaru looked at Takane again. "Sempai."

"Yes?"

"Thanks for everything. I'll never forget that time when you helped me against Quartum-san. You hurt your own hands, not even thinking about it, while attempting to rescue me from certain doom. I'll never be able to repay that."

Takane waved a finger. "Don't say that. The oportunity might very well come someday. I just hope you're up for it when it comes."

"So do I," Chachamaru agreed. With a small, melancholic smile.

It was very late by the time she had made it back to the cabin. Evangeline stood at the door, arms crossed, confirming what she already well far too well. "It's quite a bit past the time we had agreed on," she observed.

"I apologize, Master, " Chachamaru bowed. "My time sensors and inner clock must have failed me."

Eva shrugged lazily. "Doesn't matter, any way. Come in. I have a few things to tell you." She turned around and walked into the darkened home.

Home.

For better or worse.

Even though no one was looking at her anymore, Chachamaru nodded quietly and followed in a highly dutiful way.

_NEXT: Shizuna_


	32. Shizuna

Night fell on Mahora, as it must fall everywhere. And darkness will always cover the activities of predators. But it also frees those who would defend against those predators to use techniques that they might not wish to use in the full light of day. Which can, of course, be a mixed blessing.

On these particular nights, there was an extremely dangerous predator running around loose, and so the most effective defenders of the campus had been sent out to patrol and hopefully bring her to bay. Unfortunately, all was not well with them.

"I can't believe you'd say that," Kuznoha Touko said disgustedly as she slowly moved down the dimly lit alleyway. "The man is beneath contempt."

"I'm not expressing approval of what he did," Katagiri replied wearily. "But nevertheless -"

"Nevertheless nothing," Touko snapped. "Parents send their children to this school, entrusting their future to us. What that man did is a slap in the face to every single parent who has ever worried about what might happen to their child here, separated from their parents, and a vile black mark on our reputation. I cannot believe that you -"

"Nevertheless," Katagiri repeated, just a bit louder. "You can't really stand there and tell me that you wouldn't welcome Takahata as backup on a night like this, when we're hunting a Most Wanted fugitive. Can you?"

Touko avoided looking at him as she replied, "My personal feelings don't enter into this."

"Of course they don't," he sighed. "In any event, it also abruptly occurs to me that we're very much operating on rumor, here."

"Yes, of course we are, but your earlier argument undermines that one!" Touko replied, ignoring the sarcastic tone to focus on the words. "You saw how the Headmaster looked. I've been working for him for five years, and he's never looked that ... beaten," she said after searching for the right word. "Firing that man was like cutting off his own right arm. He wouldn't have done it if that man hadn't given him cause."

" _That man_ has a name, you know."

"Yes, and unlike you, I do not want to say it, since I'd rather not have disgusting things in my mouth! There was enough of that when I was married!" she sneered. Then blushed as she realized that she'd said far too much, and resumed silently scanning the area.

Katagiri resisted the impulse to chuckle, because, honestly,it wasn't all that funny. He was well aware of how hurt Kuznoha had been by the dissolution of her marriage, even if it hadn't been a particularly happy union. Though she never explicitly said it, she felt that she'd failed, and her sense of failure and humiliation was a key factor in the anxiety she felt about her more recent relationship.

She'd never believe it, but he honestly understood exactly what she was going through, having been through the same experience himself - albeit from the other side. (Which of course was why she wouldn't believe it.) He had been married, and seen his marriage wither and die. Unlike Touko, he hadn't been lucky enough to get out of it before the children had come along. So he'd probably wrecked three lives beyond his own.

Well, maybe only two lives. By all accounts, his daughter was doing fairly well. His son, on the other hand ...

Young mages, when they were told about pactios, thought it would be so easy. You'd find someone who would be your perfect partner and seal it with a kiss. But life was never so simple, was it? Feelings change, and even if you still love the one you made that pactio with, the nature of that love will change too. The person you want to have with you in all your struggles becomes the person you want to shield from all harm ... and no matter how wonderful that might seem at first, they will resent your attempts to control them in the name of shielding them.

Katagiri snorted. How arrogant they were! Touko and him both. The truth was that it hadn't been all his fault, any more than it had been all Touko's fault in her case. Believing that it had been was a frankly pathetic defense mechanism to cope with the fact that matters had been beyond their control. Power breeds arrogance, unfortunately, and both of them were well supplied with -

"Did you hear that?" Touko said quietly, nonetheless breaking his chain of thought.

He didn't answer aloud, instead trying to hear what she had. And the faint sound of girlish giggles reached him.

"Call for backup and then follow me," Touko ordered, drawing forth her sword. "And if she has the seal on that damned sword off, then by all that's holy, get it out of her hands." Then she was running

Katagiri promptly cast a simple telepathy spell to alert some of their fellow teachers as to the situation, then turned to follow Touko's headlong dash ... but paused before doing so. This was a little too easy, as though someone were trying to draw them in a specific direction. He paused to consider his surroundings, and thus saw the shadow just behind the corner of the building they had just passed.

There was no time to call out to Touko, no time for much of anything at all. He tensed and threw himelf in the direction of that shadow.

"Oh, excellently done!" Tsukuyomi said brightly. "I was hoping that one of you wouldn't fall for ventriloquism!"

He didn't respond to her, merely started to cast a spell to, as Touko said, get the damned sword out of her hands. But then he saw, somewhat to his shock, that her sword was nowhere to be seen. She was simply standing there in her allegedly-pretty dress, smiling cheerfully at him. He dropped the spell he was casting and began to create a bind instead.

It took him at most two seconds to switch gears. That was enough. The garage door they were standing beside slid open with a clatter, and something reached out and grabbed ahold of him, pulling him off his feet and towards the garage before he could do anything. And then he turned and saw it and there was no time to do anything, no time even to scream.

It took his left arm first. The shock almost made him pass out, but he retained just enough consciousness to be able to think, to understand what was happening to him. Perhaps that was the true hell, to be able to understand and do nothing to stop it. Even if he'd been able to form a spell, his remaining arm was pinioned against his side, leaving him with very little chance of correctly directing it.

His final thoughts were of his children. His daughter would be all right, but his son ... oh, if he ever found out about all of this, all it would do would be to make him even more cynical and hostile to the world. His sister had even given the boy a nickname about how cynical he'd become.

_Kyon_ , he thought, as the teeth came down around his chest.

Tsukuyomi paused to delicately wipe the blood spatter off her glasses - she was nearly blind without them - before she closed the door to let the nice monster enjoy itself. She wished she was having nearly as much fun, as she darted off into the night with a sour expression on her face.

* * *

The night ended, as all nights must. But the day that followed was cloudy and sombre, though the meteorologists assured everyone that the rains that had drenched the area in the previous week would not return.

Minamoto Shizuna almost wished that they would. Rain would keep people (which included students) indoors, so they wouldn't come to her for advice and counsel. Rain would allow her to just sit in her office all day long and do absolutely nothing until it was time to pack it in and go home, to her small apartment, her cat, and the remnants of the bucket of ice cream that she'd started to devour last night.

Some days were better than others. That was true for everyone. Today was not going to be a good day. By now, the rumors that had been circulating among the teachers and staff would have reached the students. Takahata had been very well-liked by his students, particularly ... especially ... by his female students. They'd want to talk to her.

Shizuna didn't want to talk to anyone. Her own feelings about the subject were in an uproar. She felt hurt, she felt grief, she felt immense anger. At least she could feel relieved that she'd never given in to her attraction to him, never acted on it beyond joining him for coffee on a few occasions. What if she had? What if she'd let herself be so lonely that she'd joined with someone who could do that sort of thing to a child? She shuddered.

But she couldn't let any of that show, not to the students who'd be coming to her for counsel, not to anyone. She didn't have to smile through the pain, but she did have to maintain equanimity and poise. No matter what happened, she could do that. She'd been through worse things than this. She'd been through the worst thing that could possibly happen in anyone's life; what was this, to that?

So she sat at her desk, hoping that no one would come to talk to her, and knowing that they would.

Sure enough, there was a polite knock at the door. "Enter," she said ... and found herself utterly unsurprised to see Kagurazaka Asuna peering in through the door as it opened, looking nervous and upset.

"Um. Good, good morning, Shizuna-sensei," the girl stammered. "I, um, I really need to talk to you, if that's all right?"

"It's fine. Please, come in and have a seat," Shizuna said. "Actually, I've been expecting you," she added a moment later.

Asuna was almost in the seat when she heard that, and promptly froze. "You have?" she asked faintly.

"Of course. Under the circumstances, you would certainly have questions you wanted someone to answer, and I am the guidance counsellor, aren't I?" Her lip quirked up momentarily in what someone might have mistaken for a smile.

"The circumstances," Asuna repeated as she oh so slowly settled into the seat of her chair.

Shizuna blinked. "Well, yes. After all, your feelings are pretty well known, to be honest," she confided. "Naturally, you'd have issues you need to address."

"Well ... known," Asuna continued to repeat slowly.

"Certainly. I mean, Takahata was fairly discrete about it, but it's usually fairly obvious when a student has a crush on their teacher," she explained.

Asuna stared for a long, silent moment. "Y'know," she finally said. "I think we might just possibly be talking at cross purposes, here."

"Eh?"

"What situation do you think brought me here, Shizuna-sensei?" she asked, trying to use as polite a phrasing as possible.

Shizuna coughed. "Well, I'm sorry, but I was under the impression that you were upset about Takahata's dismissal from the faculty."

"Oh. That."

Now Shizuna stared. That had sounded almost like ... could she have completely misread the situation? It had been a crush, after all, and those things don't last. But to go from the point where one asked the object of one's feelings out on a date to the point where one didn't care whether he left his job under a cloud? In just a month or so? "Yes," she said. "Is that not it?"

"Um, well, no," Asuna admitted. "I mean, I-I'd heard about that, but, y'know, it's just one of those things, I guess. People ... don't stay." She looked embarrassed to be saying that so bluntly.

"I see," Shizuna said, quietly marveling at the girl's sang-froid. Or perhaps she'd only heard about his departure, and not the rumors about the circumstances. Well, in any event. "So, then, what seems to be on your mind?"

"Um ... this is confidential, right?" Asuna asked, looking worried again.

"Well, unless you admit to some sort of academic or criminal offense, then, yes, it's confidential. What's the matter, Asuna-san?" Just a bit of pressure.

"Well, you see," Asuna said, starting out slowly and then rushing ahead. "When we had sex ed, one of the other girls in our class had these after-school sessions where she filled in what she said they were leaving out, and one of the things she mentioned was a morning-after pill, and I was wondering whether you knew where I could get some?"

Shizuna sat frozen for a moment.

"Sensei?"

"Ah. Well," she finally said. "Actually, no. I don't think any of the various types of emergency contraceptive medicines that are in use in other countries are legal here in Japan."

"Oh," Asuna said.

"Should, should I take it from your inquiry that you are, um, sexually active?" This was not a conversation she ever enjoyed having. Particularly not considering the next question she was going to have to ask.

"I guess it wouldn't really be right to pretend that I was asking on behalf of a friend, would it?" Asuna replied, trying to lighten the mood a little without really succeeding. "Yes," she added a moment later, not looking directly at Shizuna when she said it.

Shizuna cleared her throat. "Asuna-san. I'm going to ask you a very rude, very hard question now, and I would really appreciate an honest answer, and if you'd look at me when you gave it," she said. "I promise that I won't get mad - at you - no matter what you say." Once the girl had hesitantly met her eyes, she asked the question. "Were you sexually active with Takahata?"

"NO!" Asuna snapped. "God, no!"

Shizuna kept looking at her for a moment, then sighed with relief. "Thank you." And then she opened her mouth to ask the even harder question.

_Are you sexually active with Negi-sensei?_

It stuck in her throat. She couldn't. It was just too disgusting to even think about. Negi was about the same age as her own son would have been if ... she crushed that thought, mercilessly. But she still couldn't bring herself to ask the question she knew that she had to ask.

So she didn't. Instead, she rolled open one of the drawers of her desk, took out one of the cards she kept there, and held it out for Asuna to take. "This is the business card of a discrete gynecologist here in Mahora," she said. "Should it become necessary, you can visit her and ... take care of matters."

Asuna stared at the card, not lifting her hand to take it. "By 'take care of', do you mean -"

"Yes," Shizuna interrupted flatly.

"I don't -"

"That's something you and your partner and ... that you'll need to think about when and if it becomes necessary," she interrupted again, narrowly avoiding saying, _And your families_. "In the meanwhile, I would suggest in the strongest possible terms that you start using standard birth control methods, such as a condom. The gynecologist can also give you a prescription for oral contraceptives." It wasn't easy to keep her tone as level as she was. There was no time to be proud.

After a moment, Asuna reached out and took the card. "Thank you," she said as she got up. "That's, that's all, I think." But she still paused, and said, "I'm really in love, you know."

"That's nice, dear," Shizuna said. "I hope it lasts."

And then she was gone, out the door, leaving Shizuna in even more of a confusion than she'd been before the girl arrived.

* * *

As she exited the building, Asuna breathed deeply for the first time since she'd arrived at the school. She looked down at the card Shizuna had given her. At the very least, she'd need to visit this doctor to get some -

"Why do you need to visit a doctor?" asked Arika, who was standing just beside her.

It was difficult, but Asuna mastered the impulse to shriek and jump away from the woman who had, to all appearances, come out of nowhere to stand beside her. She couldn't quite keep aggravation out of her tone when she spoke. "You followed me, didn't you?"

"Daughter. There is a person loose on this campus who specifically wants to kill you, and has already killed one person. Of course I followed you; were the world mine, you would go nowhere without a small army of bodyguards."

Asuna's head snapped in Arika's direction. "She's killed someone? What, who -"

"Apparently, one of the magic teachers disappeared last night while patrolling, leaving only a quantity of blood to mark his presence," Arika answered, her face utterly still, her voice low and level. "I haven't been able to find out more than that. My subversion of the school's surveillance system is not complete. Be that as it may, I would ask that you not try to get around my question. Why do you need to visit a doctor, Asuna?"

"I don't," Asuna answered, looking away and trying to tuck the card away in one of the pockets of her jeans. "But, y'know, if I did, it'd be good -"

"I saw the characters for Obstetrican and Gynecologist on the the card, daughter," Arika said, in the same low, level tone.

Asuna said nothing.

"This is a foreign land to me," her mother continued, looking away herself. "I really only know about it what I have learned since you brought me here, and what Nagi told me he had learned during his journeys here. One of those things was that the primary method of dealing with ... unwanted childen ... was one that required a surgical procedure."

Asuna struggled to keep her calm. "That, that was true, once, but not anymore. But ... yes. The doctor I'm seeing ... does that procedure."

"Indeed." Arika still wasn't looking at her. "I find that notion disgusting. But on the other hand, the primary method of dealing with unwanted children in my homeland was, at one time, to abandon them on a hillside shortly after their birth. Perhaps your way is more humane. Perhaps."

"I don't know from humane," Asuna snapped, no longer trying to keep calm. "But, but - do you really want to have this conversation in public?"

"I took the liberty of casting a spell to deceive the ears of those near us. Please try to avoid raising your voice, both to make it easy for the spirit it called up to improvise a plausible conversation about tonight's dinner, as well as for the obvious reason," Arika replied, facing her daughter again.

Reigning it in, Asuna began walking and Arika walked alongside her. "I got to talking with Negi last night, after we, well, and after you fell asleep."

"I don't sleep, I -"

"Uh-huh, well, while you were making snoring noises while waiting, we were talking about what he did with Chisame-san and Hakase." She glared at Arika. "I'm a little pissed that I didn't get to stick around and watch that."

"That is your right," Arika agreed.

"Gee, thanks. He, he was a little freaked out about it, about being a father, and, and then he told me about what you said a few days ago ..." She trailed off.

"Ah." The former queen nodded. "Yes, I can see why you might grow concerned."

Asuna clenched her fists and stopped in her tracks. "You are so damned casual about all of this!" she bit out. "I'm fifteen years old! And don't give me any crap about, 'I was twelve'!"

"Very well. I will not give you such crap. I will give you the truth. I would very much like grandchildren." She spread her hands. "I think most parents would."

"Yeah, but most parents don't want to become the parents of their grandchildren!" Asuna snapped.

"Voice," Arika said warningly. "That was a different thing. I think you can understand why I'd want more children, whose lives I would hopefully not miss as I've missed yours and Negi's." Her face clouded. "But it doesn't seem likely that will happen, now."

Asuna almost wanted to keep pressing her, but something about her air of sorrow stopped her. "What do you mean?" she asked after a moment.

Arika sighed before answering. "One of the attributes of the Royal Magic which I have cultivated is an awareness of the functioning of my own body. With effort, I can extend that awareness to perceive changes in another's body as well, but that's not important right now. Since that time which he told you about, I have been studying my reproductive system in detail, and discovered ..." She trailed off, then shook her head.

"I should have realized it before then," she murmured, just loud enough for Asuna to hear. "I told you, didn't I, when I was freed from that cell that they'd put me in, that I'd lost track of how long I'd been there, and didn't know how many years it had been? And yet every woman born has a foolproof way of telling when a month has passed. At the time, I thought my captors were putting drugs in my food to stop my cycle for ... well, I couldn't figure out why they'd want to do that. But now I believe that whatever they did to me was more permanent in nature than that."

Asuna felt herself go white with horror, not unmixed with anger. "That's, that's awful!"

Arika shrugged. "That's life." She eyed Asuna's gaping expression with a certain dark amusement. "But perhaps now you understand why grandchildren have become such a priority to me."

"Yes, yes, okay, I got it, you don't have to ... but I'm afraid!" Asuna finally burst out.

"You have a right to be."

As though she hadn't heard that, Asuna continued. "What if, what if it -"

"He or she, not it," Arika said, just a bit sharply.

"What if the baby is, is wrong? If he or she is sick, or twisted, because Negi is ..." She trailed off again.

"Asuna. Daughter. That is a possibility that you must face regardless of who you would choose to be the father of your children," Arika reminded her softly. "You are my daughter and my sister, for good or ill, and given how closely our father and my mother were related, I could probably add cousin to the list as well. Will you let fear rule your life?"

"I don't want to, but it's bigger than just my life, isn't it?" Asuna pointed out, almost tearfully.

"So it is," Arika allowed.

"It's easy for you, your crazy religion says all of this is all right," the girl said as she started to get angry again.

Arika seemed startled. "My reli- Ah." She nodded. "Tatsumiya. I'm afraid she's given you some bad information. Yes, I was associated with the Mysteries of Aphrodite and Eros for a short while after you were born. It was a casual thing ... well, no, it wasn't. I was looking to the gods in hopes that they'd grant me understanding of what had happened to me. I followed many paths in that time. But while the Mysteries accept incest, they don't actively encourage it, and in many ways try to subtly discourage it.

"And in any event, after the destruction of Ostia, I was officially anathematized by every religion in which I'd ever been initiated, including that one," she concluded. "Even without that, I don't really believe in anything I learned from them, anymore."

Asuna had listened to this in silence as her assumptions were undone. "Then why? If it's not because of that, then ... why?"

Arika drew in a deep breath. "Because it gives me pleasure, and I believe that it gives you pleasure too. Am I wrong? If so, then we'll stop. All you have to do, is say no. And I will respect that."

Asuna stared at her for a long moment, before falling forward and pressing her face into Arika's shoulder. Startled, there was another pause before Arika's arms came up to wrap around her daughter's shoulders.

"I don't want to stop," Asuna murmured. "Even though I'm scared, even though I don't know if it's right or not, I don't want to stop."

"Then we won't," Arika said.

* * *

Of course, when one is of a certain sensual temperment, as they both were, an agreement not to stop engaging in sexual antics with each other almost inevitably becomes an agreement to start engaging in sexual antics with each other as soon as possible. And so it was that they set out to find a convenient set of shrubbery, which wasn't terribly hard.

Kissing passionately as they rubbed up against each other, hands sliding up and under shirts to squeeze and caress firm breasts, Asuna took the lead, or was permitted to do so, and reached up with a free hand under Arika's skirt. Her lips twisted in mild aggravation. "You had to pick today to stop going commando?" she asked as she slid the lacy undergarments to the side.

"It's a moderately windy day and I'm not really an exhibitionist," Arika explained as she settled back to let Asuna do with her as she pleased.

It pleased Asuna to pause, look around at their surroundings and then fix her mother with an extremely ironic expression.

"Would you rather engage in commentary or sex?" Arika asked dryly.

"Sex," Asuna admitted, then lifted the skirt and leaned down to begin licking at the lips of her mother's vagina. The older woman leaned back with a pleasant sigh, enjoying the novel sensations; Asuna hadn't done this to her before this, but she was clearly showing the skills she'd acquired from her practice with Setsuna and Ayaka. Introducing a novice to sex was wonderful, but an experienced lover was worth his or her weight in rubies.

After she was brought to a shuddering orgasm, Arika attempted to lift Asuna up so as to return the favor. She was once again reminded that, although it was still not clear which of them was stronger, Asuna was considerably stronger than she seemed, and was not to be moved without her consent. She lifted her head just enough to shake it. "Nuh-uh," she said. "This time, it's all about you. I love you, mommy."

It seems a day for firsts, Arika thought as she fought desperately to keep from crying in joy as Asuna lifted her head up to start suckling at her teats. "You didn't get to do this when you were a baby," she murmured, the pleasure at the sensation almost overwhelming that of the three fingers Asuna kept pistoning below. "I wanted you to; every day, my breasts ached with the milk that was going to waste ..."

Asuna answered her only with a sigh as she added a fourth finger. Her mother shuddered with the sensation.

"Oh, daughter, are you going to?" she asked.

"Can I?" Asuna answered. "Do you want me to?"

"Yes," Arika replied without even a thought.

Asuna drew in a deep breath, folded her thumb against the palm of her hand ... and pushed. Arika let out a deep, low groan that dissolved into pants of exertion as her head fell back. "Keep going," she said between gasps.

"Uh," Asuna temporized nervously.

"Do not be gentle, Asuna. I do not want or need gentleness. Twice before, things much larger than your hand have passed through those gates. That was pain; this is pleasure. Give me your fist, my darling child," she said through clenched teeth. "And swiftly! My cunt hungers!"

Before Asuna could really get going, there was a sudden rustling in the bush behind them and Yue abruptly stepped into sight, opening her mouth to say something, perhaps some variation on, 'What's all this then?' The words never cleared her lips and she just stood there, looking rather stupid with her mouth open.

"Yue, what's going on, why did you - ohhhh," Nodoka said as she followed her into the bushes and saw what had her friend all agape. She stared in suprise as well, but had enough presence of mind to close her mouth.

"This, this is -" Asuna started to say.

"- exactly," interrupted Arika, "what it looks like."

"Right," said Yue. "Ah, well, I, um ..."

"A little privacy would be welcome, unless either of you would like to join in," Arika continued.

"No, no, we're, uh, we're, we're patrolling, you see, and -" Yue explained as she backed up.

"We'll just be on our way," Nodoka added, backing up with her.

"'Join in'?" Asuna repeated incredulously once they were out of earshot.

"Reverse psychology, dear," Arika explained. "Mostly, at least. I admit to a certain curiosity where Miyazaki is concerned ... are you going to continue?"

Back on the pathway, Nodoka and Yue walked together in silence for a moment. The silence was broken when Yue finally said, "Well. You were right. I didn't believe it, but, you were right."

"Mm-hm," Nodoka said. "All that time with Setsuna-san and Konoka-san, the way that she acts like Negi-sensei's big sister, the jealousy towards Iinchou - they all make sense when you realize that Asuna-san is also a lesbian."

"Well, that clearly seems to be the case, but I still don't buy your idea about Hasegawa being the one Sensei really cares about," Yue noted dubiously. "Makie just seems like a much better candidate. And she's a lot more savvy than she lets on."

"Be that as it may, I'm telling you -"

* * *

A little while later, Asuna poked her head out of the bushes to make sure they wouldn't be seen when they emerged. No one was present, so she stepped out of cover and beckoned for Arika to follow, which the former Queen did with unhurried grace.

"I can't believe you can walk after all that," Asuna said, just a bit enviously.

"Stamina, dear. One of our many gifts. Feeling better, I hope?" Arika asked as she walked beside her older child.

"A little," Asuna allowed. "I'm still not sure -"

"Nor should you be. Such decisions should never be untroubled. But I think you now are in a better state of mind, daughter, to listen to a theory of mine. What I said to you before about the risks you will face is the cold fact, but there's more to life than facts. Asuna, I believe that the Royal Magic may -"

By that point in Arika's monologue, they had reached an intersection in the tree-lined pathway, and began to turn to head back towards the dormitory.

"Ah! Asuna-san and Arika-san, what a pleasant surprise!" said Ayaka from behind them.

Asuna couldn't quite suppress a sigh. She'd really been enjoying her private time with her mother, and even though she and Ayaka had gotten a lot closer than she'd ever thought they would, this was an interruption she hadn't looked for. Still, maybe she could just exchange a few pleasantries and be on her way without an argument breaking out.

Okay, it was never going to happen, but she might as well give it a shot. So she painted on a smile and turned to look at Ayaka, who was wearing a bright pink sun dress and white heels. She was surprised to see that the class representative was being accompanied by a handsome looking fellow who looked to be in his sixties or so, who was regarding them from behind a pair of thick spectacles. The impulse to tease her about hanging around with the sort of guys she thought Asuna found attractive was almost overpowering, but she pushed it down.

"Ayaka-san," she said instead. "What a fortuitous meeting!" Let her puzzle that one out.

"Indeed," Ayaka agreed, sort of ruining the effect Asuna had been going for. "I was hoping to introduce you and Arika-san to my grandfather. Grandfather, this is Asuna-san, whom I believe I've told you about already, and her mother."

"Indeed," the old man said, looking long at Asuna. "She's just as I imagined her to be, from your descriptions of her."

The hairs on the back of Asuna's neck started to stand up for no readily apparent reason. She had to be imagining things. He couldn't be leering at her, could he?

Beside her, Arika had gone utterly still. "Ayaka," she said, not bothering with honorifics. "This man is the person you know as your grandfather?" Her voice was nearly without tone.

Ayaka blinked at the odd question and the informality with which she was being addressed. "Yes, that's what I said. He's my grandfather. Is something -"

"Have you ever seen this man," Arika asked, voice unchanging, "without his glasses?"

And suddenly, the old man laughed. It was not a pleasant sound, not an indication of mirth or pleasure, but something far colder. "I suppose I shouldn't really have expected these to fool you, of all people, with these," he said, touching his hand to the spectacles' frames.

"Not when your face is indelibly etched in my memories," Arika agreed steadily.

Ayaka, who had clearly been spooked by the sound of the old man's laughter, took a few quick steps that brought her to the side of Asuna and Arika before turning to face him. "Grandfather, you are behaving very strangely all of a sudden," she said with feigned calm. "May I ask how it is that you know Arika-san?"

"Let us dispense with the absurdities," he replied. "You are not the daughter of Yukihiro Teruo, and so should not call me grandfather. I was involved in other affairs, or I would surely have done something about Springfield's cuckolding of the boy when it occurred. Or perhaps not, since the other side of the absurdity of calling me grandfather is that Teruo is not my son." And with that, he removed the glasses.

And abruptly, they could all see his mismatched eyes, one blue, one green.

Just like Arika's.

Just like Asuna's.

"No," Asuna whispered, knowing who this man was, knowing who was leering at her, knowing -

"Who are you, sir!" Ayaka thundered. "Who do you think you are, posing as my grandfather? Where is he? And who are you? What is your name?"

"Your companions already know my name, but allow me to introduce myself nonetheless. I am Alladia Autarkia Vespertatia Entheofushia. As to the whereabouts of your supposed grandfather," he continued, much more scornfully, "he is long-dead, since before you were born, in fact. He provided me with a useful cover identity that I have enjoyed a great deal. But the time for such deceptions is over, and I've known that since you escaped from your captivity, daughter."

Arika simply stared at him, saying nothing.

"Not a word of greeting for your dear old dad," he asked tauntingly.

"I believe that I said everything I had to say to you eighteen years ago, when they took you away to be imprisoned for your treason," Arika spoke at last.

"Yes, I remember your sickening sanctimony well," the old man sneered. "'I do love you, father,' you said. How revolting. I hope our daughter has not inherited your weakness. Well, girl?" he snapped at Asuna. "Have you anything to say to me?"

Asuna stared at him, at her father, the man who had given her life and then sentenced her to spend years alone and cold and lonely and hidden away and ill-treated and with a voice thick with fury she spoke one word. "Adeat," she said, and the sword was in her hand, and -

"No!" Ayaka said, standing athwart her. "This isn't the way!" The girl looked utterly terrified.

_Of me? That ... no, that isn't right. Ayaka might hate me sometimes, but fear me? No, that should_ never _be._

And it came to Asuna that her life, given her by this man, had not been a constant stream of pain unending. There had been joy, and the girl before her had been a cause of much of it. And so, with effort, the fury slowly, slowly eased to mere anger.

"Weak," the man called Alladia sneered.

"Valuing life is not weakness," Ayaka snapped, not looking at him.

He ignored her. "In any event, this is not quite the way that I wanted our reunion to occur. I still have considerable work to do before that occurs, but I suppose that this is for the best. I am free now to do that work rather than continue the pretense of touring this place with a certain hoyden." That got Ayaka to snap her head around to glare at him, but he ignored the look just as he ignored her words.

"If you'll excuse me, then, I'll be off and attending to my plans," he said, taking a step backwards.

"What are you planning, father?" Arika said, anger finally starting to show in her voice.

"Why, vengeance, of course. What else could it possibly be?" he said lightly ... then turned and bounded off in a gigantic leap that soon had him out of sight.

Arika swore an unfamiliar oath. "Ayaka, you fool! Why did you stop her! We could have engaged him, and ended this before he got away, and ... why are you smiling?"

"Because whatever he's planning, he just lost," she said. "Right, Miyazaki?"

"Right, Iincho," said Nodoka as she stepped from behind one of the trees lining the pathway, with her Diary out and open. Yue was quick to step out from behind one of the other trees.

"Teamwork and forgiveness," Ayaka said to a startled Arika and Asuna, as Yue also stepped out from behind one of the other trees. "Aren't they wonderful lessons?"

_NEXT: Misa_


	33. Misa

Ako smiled as the whole soccer team - the eleven regulars and three subs - tromped into the showers to find her waiting for them in her track suit. "Hey, Ako-chan!" said the team captain as he spotted her there. "How was your summer vacation?" Oddly unasked was the obvious question, what are you doing in the boys' showers?

"Oh, it was great, taichou," she said, eyes bright. "I learned a lot this summer. Actually, that's why I'm here - I want to show the team a great morale booster that I learned over the summer break!"

"Wow! As expected of our cute little manager!" the captain said. "Okay, lemme have it!"

"Funny," Ako said, letting a bit of sultriness into her tone as she slid down the zipper of the track suit's jacket to reveal that she wore neither shirt nor bra beneath it. "That's my line to all of you," she continued, pushing the pants down over her hips to show that she wore no panties either. "Lemme have it, boys!"

Moments later she was firmly mounted on one of them, who was lying on his back on one of the benches as her hips rocked up and down on his hardness, with her bent forward to put her head at the right level to take the dick of one of the other boy's in her mouth and down into her throat, all the while jacking one more off in each hand. She pulled back from the one in her mouth, gasping for breath before shouting, "Come on guys, I got another hole open! Someone come drill my -"

Abruptly, someone did, prompting her to break off her words and hiss in obscene pleasure as she enjoyed her first double penetration. She knew at once that it definitely wasn't going to be her last; if nothing else, she would have to use all of her holes to satisfy the whole team in the brief time available to her. And then she was going to take the coach and -

Ako woke up.

Reality - that she was alone and in her own bed, not naked but wearing her pyjamas - struck her like a wave of icy water. Refreshing but nonetheless somewhat painful. She did spare a bit of gratitude that she hadn't sat bolt up in bed, screaming; that would have surely awakened Makie, who'd have asked ... well, knowing Makie, she'd have asked all the wrong questions and drawn the completely wrong conclusions, but even thinking about that imaginary conversation was embarrassing.

The dreams had been getting worse. Dreaming about sex with dozens of clones of oneself was kind of disturbing, but Ako could at least take comfort in the fact that it could never really happen. Dreaming about an orgy involving every single girl in the class was really disturbing, even though it was really unlikely. (There had to be a few girls in 3-A who didn't go both ways, right?) But this one, dreaming about getting busy with the entire soccer team ... it was disturbingly possible, even though the boys had always been very polite and even gentlemanly towards her.

Her breath just wouldn't steady itself.

Checking the clock revealed that it was just a little after five in the morning. Going out in the hallway was risky; the dorm mother didn't patrol at fixed times, instead doihg her sweeps of the halls at irregular intervals that kept the students on their toes. If she got caught, she'd be in a lot of trouble.

But she couldn't stand the thought of being alone right now, and even if she could wake Makie up, it wouldn't really help matters. Makie's innocence, endearing as it was, would also keep her from even approaching an understanding of what Ako was going through right now. So there was really only one thing to do, even if it was risky.

She got up, put on her slippers, opened the door just wide enough to peek out and see that no one was coming down the hallway, then darted out, swiftly and silently making her way to Akira and Yuna's room. As quietly as she could, Ako lifted her hand and rapped her knuckles on the door.

Immediately as she did so, she realized what an idiot she was being. She should have called ahead before coming. Akira might be sound asleep, so that she couldn't hear the knock at the door. Or what if she was over in Madoka's room, or even with Sakurako? (Okay, that one didn't seem very likely, but lots of things that happened to or around Sakurako didn't seem too likely.) Or what if she just didn't want -

The door swung open and an exhausted looking Yuna looked out at her. "It's five in the damn morning," she informed Ako in the manner of one who suspected that her subject could not possibly be aware of this fact. "What do you want?"

Ako gaped for a moment before she found her voice. "Yuna? When did you get back from Amsterdam?" she asked.

"Yesterday," Yuna eventually answered with grave dignity. "Was that it? Please tell me that's it."

"Uh, no, no, um, I wanted to talk to Akira," Ako explained.

"I'm here, I'm here," Akira said as she came up to the door from behind Yuna. "Ako, what's -"

"Fine," Yuna interrupted. "You're here, you handle it, I'm going back to bed, try not to make a lot of noise or I will probably shoot the both of you." She held up her pactio card to prove that this was not an idle theat, then slumped down the short distance back into the bedroom area.

"She's back," Ako said. It seemed the right thing to say.

"Yes," Akira agreed softly. "She, well, she hasn't said anything, but I think something really bad happened while she was away. Ako, I know you probably want to be with me right now, but I think that's not a good idea -"

"It's not about wanting," Ako said pleadingly. "I need to be with you. Okay, I just need to be with someone, but I want it to be you. When I'm alone, the nightmares start up, and they're getting really, really bad, Akira. Please? We don't have to do anything, I just want to be with you right now. Please?"

Akira sighed, then reached down to hug Ako close. "Yes, okay, you can stay the rest of the night and into the morning. Come on in."

They walked in together, and as Ako got settled in on Akira's bottom bunk, Akira herself popped up to explain the situation to Yuna. "Um, listen, Yuna, before you get back to sleep -"

"- which I almost had," Yuna muttered from where she lay curled up and facing the wall.

"Sorry. But, um, Ako's going to be staying here for a little while. I guess, well, she got used to staying over while you were away, and now she's -"

Yuna rolled over to look at Akira levelly. "If you're going to be having sex, just say so," she said disgustedly.

"Sex?" Akira said, panicking completely. You'd never have known it to look at her though. "What are you talking about? What would make you think that we're doing that sort of -"

"Akira, don't bullshit a bullshit artist, all right?" Yuna said disgustedly. "You two have been screaming S-type couple for ages now, and with all the crap that's been going around, it's freaking inevitable that you'd try it on. I don't care, Akira. Sex ... just isn't all that interesting to me anymore."

Akira stared at her. "What happened?" she asked, appalled.

Yuna rolled back to her original, wall-gazing posture. "I don't wanna talk about it."

Akira kept staring at Yuna's back for a moment, before she finally stepped down and climbed back into bed beside Ako, who promptly curled up against her. But the smaller girl fell asleep before she could make any romantic overtures, leaving Akira awake, and gazing up at the bottom of the bunk on which Yuna was lying.

Five in the morning. And it was still going to be a long night.

* * *

About five hours later, Ako finally felt rested enough to give serious thought to breakfast. With encouragement from Akira, she decided to experiment with the idea of French toast. Of course, all the noise from the kitchenette, not to mention the smoke from the first few attempts at cooking the toast, woke Yuna up as well.

Initially, the other girl stayed right where she was, responding to Akira's good morning with a polysyllabic grunt. But by the time the toasted bread was done, with marmalade spread atop it to cover up the worst of the burnt taste, Yuna had been drawn at least partway out of her shell, joining the two of them to eat, at least. But the very first words out of her mouth, once she swallowed down the first few bites of toast and a bit of apple juice to make it go down easier, were, "I still don't wanna talk about it."

"That's okay," Akira assured her. "When you do want to talk about it, though, we're ready to listen."

"I'm never gonna want to, so don't hold your breath."

"So, how was Amsterdam?" Ako asked, in what she thought was a clever attempt to change the subject.

Yuna set down the toast and started rubbing her head. "Welcome to section two of 'I don't wanna talk about it'," she said.

"Oh, come on!" Ako protested, raising her voice a little. "There's got to be some safe topic of conversation!"

Yuna considered. "I think the Hanshin Tigers might actually break the Curse of the Colonel this year," she offered up after a few moments thought.

"Baseball?" Akira asked. "You want to talk about baseball?"

"I don't think either of you know about basketball."

"Yuna," the taller girl said. "We're worried about you. Neither of us like seeing you like this. We -"

Whatever else Akira might have said was broken off when Yuna started pounding her forehead rhythmically against the table.

"What, what are you doing?" Ako gasped.

"That was how the whole mess got started," Yuna said as she paused from her headbanging. "Me saying those exact same words to freaking Asuna! What goes around really does come around, doesn't it? Aw man ..."

Before she could resume slamming her head against the table, Akira came around to that side and pulled her back from it. "Okay, stop doing that," she said. "What is the point of -"

"Because it'll feel so good when I stop," Yuna moaned.

"Well, then, feel good and talk to us," Akira said, unable to keep a little bit of the anxiety she was feeling out of her tone. "What happened, Yuna?"

And so she talked. She described how she'd found Asuna crying alone in the rain, brought her to her father's apartment and left her there to go get some dry clothes ... and then described what she'd found when she came back. Akira and Ako's jaws dropped when they heard about Asuna having sex with Yuna's father, but, incredibly, dropped further when they heard what Yuna had done in response.

"You had sex with your father?" Ako asked incredulously.

" _That's_ who you were having sex with when we overheard you at your dad's place?" Akira said, looking completely stunned.

"Seemed like a good idea at the time," Yuna replied.

"What? No! What time could possibly make that seem like a good idea?" Ako demanded. "I'm a slut and I think that's a terrible idea!"

"You're a slut?" Yuna asked curiously.

"You're not a slut!" Akira said forcefully. To Yuna, she added, "She's not a slut."

"Okay," Yuna said agreeably, tilting her head. "Why do you think you're a slut?"

"She's not a -"

"Just questioning perceptions, not facts," Yuna interrupted. "Your turn, Ako."

"My -" Ako started to ask.

"You got me to confess my sins, time for some reciprocity. Come on. Let's hear your misdeeds."

And so she talked, confessing her affair with Tosaka, her continuing crush on Negi, and then her encounters with Akira (which made Akira blush faintly) and Madoka and Sakurako. Yuna listened with fascination and asked some probing questions about the mechanics of their group experience, which made Akira blush even more brightly when Ako answered them.

"Well," Yuna said at last. "I've got some good news, Ako. You're kind of easy, but you're not a slut."

"But I am!" Ako protested.

"You had sex with a family member?" Yuna asked.

"My family are -"

"You had sex with someone who was getting paid for it?" This time she didn't pause long enough for Ako to get a word in edgewise. "How about with someone you just met? Someones, rather? Whose names you never bothered to learn? In a public place?"

Ako just stared agape.

"Yeah, you've got a ways to go to be a slut, kiddo," Yuna informed her breezily. "Wanna hear about more of my Amsterdam adventures?"

"No," said Ako at length. "Not particularly, no."

"You're, you're not a, a slut either, Yuna," Akira told her, trying to sound convincing but not really succeeding.

"Nice try," Yuna replied kindly. She finished off the last of her toast, swallowed her apple juice and got to her feet. "Gouchisosama," she added. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to bed. I think I've earned at least a day off from the mating game before I start looking for a new boy- or girl-friend, and I'm going to spend it in bed. Alone."

"Huh?" asked Ako.

"Ah. That was the last part of my untold adventures. I got dumped, on top of everything else. Daddy decided to be daddy instead of my sex-buddy. So I'm back on the market. Isn't that nice?" she added with a sad smile.

"No," said Akira, her eyes narrowing. "It's not nice that he waited until after all of this to be a responsible adult. He should have done that at the very start!"

"Oh, give me a break, Akira, it's not like I gave him any real choice in the matter," Yuna said, sounding annoyed.

"You're the child, he's supposedly an adult," Akira snapped.

"I stopped being a child a while back, as you well know!" Yuna retorted. "Look, from the sound of things, neither of us is in any position to be giving the other relationship advice. So unless you've suddenly got out of a love polygon with Ako, Madoka and Sakurako, quit hassling me, all right?" And with that, she turned and climbed up into her bunk, facing away from them once more.

Akira looked like she wanted to say something more, but she held it in. Eventually, she turned to Ako, who was looking at her nervously.

"She's right about at least one thing," Akira said. "We need to resolve that situation before it goes on much longer."

Ako swallowed. "I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings," she said.

"I don't think you can avoid that by not doing anything," Akira said. "All you can do, that way, is make it last longer and make it hurt more when it finally does end. It's like me not telling you about 'Nagi' that way."

"... okay," Ako finally said, looking away. "Let's go talk to Kugimii and Saku, then."

As they rose up from the floor, a strange expression crossed Ako's face, and she pulled out her pactio card and held it to her head. "Yes, sensei? All right, I'll come, are you going to - oh. All right ... uh, Yuna's back home, so you should be able to contact her. Yes, I'll come with her if she's coming."

"Trouble?" asked Akira when Ako lowered the card.

"I think so. That conversation is going to have to -"

"Hey, Negi-kun," Yuna said from her bunk, loud enough for both of them to hear. "Yeah, I'm great. Sure, just lemme get dressed and I'll be right there." She rolled out of bed and dropped to the floor before she started pulling off her pyjamas. "This is a better distraction anyway," she noted to her two companions.

Akira nodded. "I'm coming with you," she said.

"Um ... I think this is Ala Alba stuff, Akira," Ako pointed out uneasily.

"Then I guess it's time that I joined," Akira said, in an unyielding tone. "I'm done being on the sidelines."

* * *

They assembled in Negi, Asuna and Konoka's room. Given how many of them there were, it got crowded pretty quickly. In addition to the Ala Alba members who'd gathered just a few days ago to pursue Nodoka, the subject of their pursuit was there with Yue, as well as Mana and, strangely, Hakase. So were Natsumi and Kotaro, both sitting pretty closely together. The only member of the regular group to be absent was Chachamaru - and Ako had quickly brought Yuna up to speed on why that might be, about everything that she'd missed, while they were on the way over.

Once they all crowded in, Negi cleared his throat. "Thank you all for coming. Thanks to Iinchou and Nodoka-san, we are now aware of a serious threat to the safety of the school, and have a unique opportunity to do something about it. Iinchou, the floor is yours."

Ayaka stood up beside him. "Earlier this morning, while I was escorting my grandfather - the person I believed to be my grandfather, at least - on a tour of the campus and town, we happened to meet up with Arika-sama and Asuna-san. Arika-sama was able to recognize that the person I was escorting was in fact her own father, the architect of the destruction of her homeland. He admitted to this, and claimed that he had murdered my grandfather many years ago and assumed his place. He then proclaimed that he was planning to take vengeance on Arika-sama, before departing rather expeditiously.

"However, due to certain things he didn't know, we were able to obtain more intelligence than he would have wanted to give us. He didn't know that the two girls we passed before we met up with Arika and Asuna were also members of our class and allies, albeit somewhat estranged at that particular moment. He didn't know that one of them possessed an artifact that can display the thoughts of someone whose name is known to its user. He didn't know that I was wearing my own artifact, which allows me to communicate telepathically. And he didn't know that I contacted my classmates and had them double back in time for them to hear him say his name aloud ... facilitating the use of the Diarum Ejus on him."

"You threw that whole plan together in just a minute or so?" Chisame asked, sounding as if she didn't believe it.

"More or less. I seem to have discovered a talent for improvisation," Ayaka noted with a cool smile.

Chisame looked like she was about to start making choking noises, but instead, she returned the smile with one of her own. _Weird,_ thought Yuna. _She never smiles like that._

"Question," said Asakura, raising her hand a little. "If your artifact lets you do telepathy stuff, then why'd you have to call in Honya to read this bloke's mind?"

Ayaka acknowledged the question with a nod before answering. "One of the ways that Nodoka-san's artifact is better than mine is that it allows her to read minds with clarity; the subject's thoughts show up as, literally, words on a printed page. In contrast, when I read a mind that isn't trying to communicate with me, it's like considering a piece of abstract art and trying to suss out the meaning of what I see."

"Whose mind did you try to read to figure that out?" Kotaro asked, brow narrowing suspiciously.

"No one present," Ayaka growled. "Shall we move forward? Nodoka-san?"

Nodoka stepped up and, after swallowing, began to speak. "I was able to discover a great deal about the plans and goals of the person calling himself Alladia. His intentions are pretty simple and straightforward - he wants revenge on Arika-sama for bringing about his dethronement ... and he also wants to cause as much death and destruction as he possibly can, simply for the sheer joy of causing it." Nodoka swalllowed again; when she spoke, it was in a very distant voice. "He's the most awful person I've ever encountered."

"What sort of resources does this person have access to?" Haruna asked, glancing at Arika, who met the artist's glance evenly.

"He has a large supply of magical and mundane weaponry, as well as a group of men he's hired from private military contractors to use it," Nodoka started to explain.

"Private military contractors?" Ako asked, blinking at the unfamiliar term.

"Mercenaries," Yuna explained.

"In addition, he has several rather disturbing-sounding monsters under his control. He has at least one shapeshifter working for him who took the form of Konoe Eishun-san when that person was kidnapped by his allies."

Konoka had already been informed of this before the meeting began, so she didn't react to the news, nor to the sympathetic looks she was given by her teammates. Her hands clenched more tightly around Setsuna's hand, though.

"And last but not least, he has Tsukuyomi working for him," Nodoka concluded.

"I thought you said she was working for Godel-san," Haruna interjected.

"No, what I said was that I thought he was the one who arranged her escape, because she is actually his daughter," Nodoka corrected. "I could be wrong about that, but I'm certain that she's working for Alladia-san now; his thoughts included a detailed description about how she brought about the death of Katagiri-sensei."

None of them had ever had classes with the mysterious beard-and-glasses sensei, but they'd all seen him around campus. The thought that he'd been murdered didn't sit well with any of them, though their precise reactions varied from anger to fear.

"If I may?" said Arika, standing up after a moment of examining their faces. "Until now, for the most part, you have faced opponents who didn't want to kill you. While the minions of the Lifemaker employed methods that were nearly as final as death, you were all able to be restored in the end. That will not be the case this time. Considering this, no one would fault you if you chose not to pursue this further."

It was Akira who gave voice to what they were all thinking. "But Negi-sensei has to pursue it, doesn't he?"

"Yes, I do," Negi answered the question before Arika could.

"Then so do we," Akira said.

"So say you all?" Arika asked. And received a collection of nods and other affirmative responses. She drew in a breath. "Very well. Then will you do me the honor of permitting me to join you in this quest?"

"What can you tell us about your, I mean, Alladia-san's capabilities?" Yue asked after everyone else gave their assent.

"You can call him my father if you wish," Arika replied to the near-misstep first. "He is one of the most dangerous opponents I have ever faced. Not only does he possess the Royal Magic, greatly augmenting his physical capabilities, but he is also a trained traditional battle mage. In contrast, I know only a few cantrips. The one good side to this is that he is a traditional mage, and will prefer to engage opponents from a distance, while his partner - I presume that this Tsukuyomi is filling the role - prevents them from coming to grips with him."

"In light of that, no one should try to confront him alone," Negi said. "Now, I've worked out some general ideas for a plan of action that should allow us some advantages in this conflict."

"General ideas, he says," Asuna muttered, rolling her eyes.

Negi affected to have not heard her. "Our first strike will be virtual. Chisame, I don't know what sort of computer systems they're going to have down there, but I would appreciate it if you could -"

"Hack them?" Chisame guessed.

"Hack them, slash them, crash them, burn them," Negi agreed. "Whatever you can do."

"Should be interesting," Chisame said, smiling grimly.

"While you're doing that, Asakura, if you would please use your Oculus Corvinus to scout out the areas of the Mahora underground that they're using as a headquarters. Sayo-san, please _don't_ accompany them, there's a good chance that our enemies have access to anti-ghost weaponry. When we actually head in in force, you can come with us then.

"Before we do so, we're going to establish a base camp as a rally point; if anything happens, fall back to that point so we can make an organized escape. Konoka-san, you and Ako-san will be staying there to act as a hospital force. Ako-san, I would ask that you please serve as the triage officer, deciding who gets regular first aid and who gets the benefit of Konoka-san's healing. Makie-san, if you and Satomi could coordinate medevac efforts -"

"Medevac?" asked Makie. Before Negi could respond, she blinked. "Oh! You mean like an ambulance. Okay, sure ... um, but why is Hakase -"

"Adeat," said Satomi, holding up a card that glowed and turned into a backpack-like device with a set of four heavy-looking remote manipulator arms extending from it above her shoulders and hips.

"Oh!" said Makie. "Cool!"

"Our main assault force will be split up into groups of two. Keep your partner in line of sight at all times. Kotaro-kun, I have a special assignment for you and Natsumi-san, that I'll explain in just a little bit. Um ... I guess that's everyone ... oh. Akira-san, will you help Ako-san in -"

"Actually, sensei, I -" Akira broke off, visibly steeled herself, then blurted out, "I've decided that I want to make a pactio with you."

Dead silence fell.

"Good idea," said Satomi after a moment. "He's a very good kisser."

"That's not why," Akira said, blushing brightly. "I, I want to be a help. And not have to stand back and watch."

"Akira-san, you don't have to -" Negi started to say.

"We accept your generous offer," interrupted Arika.

"Yes, welcome to the Ala Alba," Asuna agreed, then clapped her hands. "Okay, everyone, out of the room, let's give them some space." It took a few minutes, but eventually everyone except for Negi, Akira and Arika were out of the room, and Arika only stayed long enough to finish drawing the circle, and favor Akira with a smile before departing.

"Your mother's very nice," Akira said, more to fill in the silence than anything else.

"Yes, she is, but she does have a few odd ways," Negi replied apologetically. "Akira-san, you really don't have to do this. You've been a lot of help without a pactio, and there's no reason for you to -"

"Negi-sensei," Akira interrupted gently. "I want to do this. I've seen what Ako, and Makie, and Yuna have become because they made a pactio with you. They've become more of what they always were. I want to stand beside my friends, and beside you, too, sensei. I want to be able to do more to help."

"... okay," Negi said at last. If you could, well, kneel down, then I'll, um." Incredibly, he was blushing.

Akira took a deep breath, then knelt down before him, closed her eyes and puckered her lips. A moment later, she felt a pair of lips resting gently on her own. They didn't feel anything like the lips of the girls she'd been kissing. Even though sensei was still too young to have any facial hair, his lips were somehow distinctly male ... or maybe that was the odor that came up through her nose from the closeness of him.

Her mouth opened just a bit, and she was startled to feel his tongue push forward past their locked lips, to rub against her own tongue. Well. This too was part of kissing, after all, and she supposed that it made sense that the deeper and more passionate the kiss, the more potent the pactio produced by it. That made sense. Right?

How long were they supposed to keep this up, anyway? No one had told her anything. What if she broke off before things were done? What if -

And then Negi was the one to pull back, and glance to one side. He froze.

"Where is it?" he asked.

"Eh?" said Akira, just a little bit dazed by the effects of the kiss.

"The card," Negi explained. "It should have appeared right beside the circle. But, but it didn't." He turned to look at the other side of the circle, in hope that it had simply shown up over there instead, but this proved an empty hope as well. The card was nowhere to be seen.

"Did, did I do something wrong? Should I have used my tongue -" Akira started to ask.

"No! No, no, I'm sure that's not it," Negi rapidly reassured her. "Um ... maybe, maybe mother doesn't really know how to do the circles all that well, and she messed up this time." Which didn't explain why there hadn't been any problems with Ayaka or Satomi's pactios. "Let's get her in here, and maybe she can explain."

A moment later, Arika came back in and examined the circle, as well as peering closely at Akira, who felt a little uncomfortable with the stress of her regard.

Finally, the former queen sighed. "I wasn't sure whether this would happen, but I suppose that it was to be expected. Negi, the fact is, you're stretched too thin already. It's rare for a mage to have more than a couple of probationary pactios at any one time. The number you have is almost unheard of. Even your father didn't have as many. Akira-san, I'm very sorry, but he just doesn't have the energy to support you."

"No, no, please don't apologize," Akira stammered. "It's my own fault, really. If I was going to do this, I should have done it a while ago. Well, um, I guess that I'll follow your idea of helping out Ako, then," she added, awkwardly, before heading out into the hall.

"I've really got too many pactios?" Negi asked.

"Don't be absurd, son," Arika said gently. "That was a lie to save face. I'm afraid that the reason you can't make a pactio with Akira-san is simpler than that. She doesn't have a soul."

Negi stared at his mother. "What?" he asked.

"She doesn't have a soul," Arika repeated. "I think she is probably not human. Considering what you've told me about her, it seems likely that she's an undine, an elemental spirit of water. Very human in appearance, but lacking a soul."

"No," said Negi. "No, that's not ... she's nice, mother! She's kind, and brave and -"

"None of these things require a soul, Negi."

"But, but I made a pactio with Chachamaru-san, and she didn't have a soul either, and -"

"Yes, you told me about that. Negi, I admit that I have no idea how you were able to do that, but I would ask you to not keep pushing the limits in that way. Eventually, you'll break yourself or shatter the world around you, and I don't want either of those things to happen."

"She doesn't have a soul," Negi repeated. "I can't believe it, mother."

"My father has a soul, Negi. It is a vile thing, probably, but it is a soul. One can be a monster with one, and a kind, decent person without one. All right?"

Negi nodded, but looked desperately unhappy nonetheless.

* * *

And so they assembled at the rally point even as Asakura's remotes began to move through the labyrinths beneath Mahora. The rally point happened to be one of the great caves that opened up on the subterranean lake, specifically that one that had been used to store the large number of robot warriors employed by Chao during the festival.

"Makes sense," Arika observed to her chosen partner. "Even though the academy's administration have been alerted to these blind spots in their surveillance, what with one thing and another, there hasn't been time enough to cover those spots."

Haruna could only nod. Just as when Arika had casually volunteered to partner with her for this operation, she had no idea what she was supposed to say. It wasn't a situation she enjoyed. Here she was, waiting for the signal to go in and begin assaulting a group of mercenaries out to destroy her home, and all she could do was wonder. "Why me?" she finally murmured.

Curse Arika's keen ears. "I chose you for a number of reasons," the former queen replied calmly. "First of all, your abilities supplement my weaknesses. As I said, I can cast only a few minor magics, certainly not the battle spells that my son favors. Your abilities as a summoner, then, will be greatly useful for any confrontation in which we find ourselves. Secondly, I judge that you are just as brave in your way as your brother in his."

Haruna jerked. "You know my brother?" she asked.

"I met him some thirteen years ago, during his European journeys. Under the circumstances, I can well imagine why he wouldn't have talked about it. But he impressed me quite a bit. In many ways." She smiled fondly at the memories, then grew serious once more. "And you have impressed me as having much of the same steel in your character."

Of all people, Haruna was the least deaf to subtext, and the implications of that statement were fairly obvious to her. Now was not the time to be addressing them, however. "I see. Thank you," she said, still a bit tense.

"And finally, should it happen that you were seriously injured in this affray, you might be moved to unburden yourself of certain of your secrets to your companion," Arika continued. "So it would be well for all concerned if that companion was already acquainted with those secrets. And also motivated to see that you were ... taken care of, shall we say," she added after a moment to consider.

Haruna, again, was not deaf to subtext. And the knives that Arika called up by her pact were sheathed at the woman's hips.

* * *

There was something faintly absurd about this, Asuna decided as she trailed along behind Kotaro and Natsumi through the subterranean passageways, holding hands like grade-school kids on a class outing. Of course, the facts that she had a huge sword strapped to her back, that the boy whose hand she was holding looked like he was about sixteen, and that the girl who was leading them was holding an opera mask over her face, all tended to take away from the 'grade-school" vibe.

"Asuna-san," Natsumi said, her voice tight with tension. "There's something I should probably tell you, in case I don't get a chance to do so again."

"Okay, go ahead," Asuna agreed absently. _Coming up on an intersection, do we turn or go straight,_ she sent to Negi telepathically.

_Straight,_ Negi replied.

"I think you're an awful person," Natsumi said.

"Excuse me?" Asuna said, and also sent.

_I said straight._

"I know about you and Iinchou," Natsumi said. "And I think that what you are doing is very, very wrong. Do we turn or -"

"Straight," Asuna answered. "What, what do you mean, it's wrong? Do you have a problem with -"

"Yes, because I am deeply involved with the homophobic institution of the theatre," Natsumi snapped.

"What's homophobic mean?" Kotaro asked, who'd been basically turning back and forth like someone watching a pingpong match during this conversation.

"I'll tell you when you're older for real," Natsumi said quietly.

"Okay, then what is your problem?" Asuna asked.

"My problem is that you're hurting someone I care about."

"This is about Chizuru-san?" Asuna said, almost gaping. "That's, are you ... that is not my fault! Blame Ayaka if you want to blame someone -"

"I do. But you played a role in all this." Natsumi paused, turned back to look at her. Despite the opera mask, her face looked grim and serious. "You didn't have to go along with her."

Asuna struggled to find a way to respond to that. Before she succeeded, Negi's voice intruded in her mind. _Asuna, you're almost there. The drone found him in a cell just off the passage you're walking through now, and if you've been walking at a normal pace, you should be -_

"There," Asuna said aloud, sighting the drone hovering just beneath the roof of the tunnel. "Natsumi-chan, now is really not the time to be discussing this," she added.

"If not now, when?" Natsumi asked as she led the hand-linked trio up to the door.

"Some other time! Kotaro-kun, on three?" Asuna asked as she focused her energy.

"One, two," the wolf-boy counted off.

"Three," they chorused as they simultaneously kicked the door, sending it flying into the room beyond it.

_Negi, we are go._

* * *

"Chisame, we are go," Negi said.

"Right. Let's do this thing," the hacker told her mice spirits.

"Yes, Chisame-sama!" they chorused excitedly. "We are honored to die in your service!"

"Let's focus on living instead, okay?" she said, swallowing, as she sent them out to do her bidding.

Throughout the catacombs, there were computers; they were a necessity of any modern operation. All at once, those computers were besieged by a wave of data that corrupted their functions. Communications went down, groups of mercenaries monitoring surveillance feeds were shown nothing but static. The likelihood that some tech guru among them would be able to improvise a response was pretty good, but the physical attack that began immediately after the first virtual salvo would slow that response.

And it also meant that no one saw what went down in one particular set of tunnels.

* * *

Hands no longer held, Asuna was the first through the now open doorway. Please don't have been behind the door, please don't have been behind the door, she thought for a terrifying few seconds before she saw Eishun lying on the cell's floor, far away from the door's flight path. The man was looking up at her in shock.

"Asuna," he croaked.

"Eishun-san!" she cried, dropping down to kneel beside him. "Are you all right? Did they hurt you?" Surreptitiously, she reached out to touch his shoulder, deliberately calling on the Cancel to dispel any magic currently affecting him. Nothing happened, and his form stayed the same; this was the real Eishun, then, not his doppelganger.

Eishun's eyes went distant for a moment.

_He is firmly bound, crucifixion-style, to a table. He has been testing the strength of the bonds for several minutes now, without success in overcoming them. He hears a door open, and believes he knows what is coming next. He is wrong._

_Tsukuyomi leans into view above him, smiling broadly, wearing her glasses ... and nothing else. "Hi, there," she says cheerfully. "Introductions are kind of superfluous, wouldn't you say? You know who I am, and I know that you're my sempai's Ojousama's father." Then her voice grows soft and confidential. "But you know what I didn't know until just a little while ago? That you're also my sempai's father! And that you've enjoyed intimacy with her, too._

_"That really bothers me," she added, much more loudly. "So I think I'm going to have to do something about that. You violated my sempai." He feels her hand wrap around his manhood. "Nobody gets to do that but me." And then her face is moving out of sight down his chest, and he feels a hot wetness engulf what was just now firmly held._

_"No," he hears himself say. "Please, don't do this -" He breaks off as he realizes the absurdity of such pleas for mercy._

_She pulls back. "Aw, keep begging! I love it when they beg!" She resumes._

_He has always been vulnerable to such tactics. Moments later, his body has betrayed him. And then she pulls back, rolls her hips over his, and slams down on him, bringing her face up to his again._

_"Isn't it good, daddy?" she asks, eyes sparkling. "Is that what you had them say? When you were stuffing your big daddy dick into them and they were crying like you're crying right now? Isn't it good daddy? Fuck me daddy! That's what you like to hear isn't it? I understand a father's love you see. Yes daddy just like that just like that!"_

_Eventually, his betrayal is complete. She rolls off him, and not until he hears a faint dripping noise does she speak again. "Next session I'm going to bring in some of the stuff I'm planning to use on sempai. One of them is a thing bigger than your thing. But you know all about that, right?"_

_The next session was two hours ago._

"Yes," he said at last. "They did. But I can walk," he concluded, getting up slowly, but without help from anyone.

"Okay," Asuna agreed, turning to Kotaro and Natsumi, who'd followed her into the room. "Follow the plan, get him out of here. I'm going to find Negi." Focusing her attention on Natsumi, she continued. "Negi is my first priority. That's how it is, that's how it will always be. If anyone doesn't understand that, that's their problem."

Before Natsumi could say anything in response, Asuna was out the door, running as fast as she could.

* * *

The butt of her staff extended out towards the jaw of the one Mana had identified as the commander of these men. As it slammed home and she whirled around the staff like a dancer around a pole, to drive a firm kick into the upper torso of one of the other men, Ku Fei took a moment to consider the worth of learning a bit about tactics and military protocol from the mercenary girl. _No, probably a bad idea,_ she decided. _After all, I'd never be able to resist showing off, and what would become of my obfuscating stupidity then?_

Meanwhile, Mana took out the other six mercenaries with a volley from her pistols. The encounter was over in less than fifteen seconds.

As the bodies hit the floor, Ku Fei swallowed. "Those are tranquilizer rounds you're using aru yo?" she asked hesitantly.

"Of course they are," Mana replied, clicking her pistols' safety back on before she holstered the cooling guns.

"I just ask because they look like they're bleeding."

"High caliber tranq rounds. Besides, dead people don't bleed."

"Oh. Well, I guess that makes sense aru."

* * *

"Your name is Brian Jorgenssen, and you're from Oslo. You have a wife and two children," Nodoka said, pointing an accusatory finger at the mercenary standing before her. "If you leave right now, there's a good chance you'll be able to see them again."

"And if I don't?" the man croaked in execrable Japanese.

"Then my partner, who's standing behind you, will probably draw her kunai across your throat," Nodoka explained evenly.

After a moment, Jorgensen clicked the safety on his rifle and held it out to the side for Kaede to take, which she did. With a shove, she sent him running for the exit.

"You've grown very accustomed to violence, Nodoka-dono," Kaede said a moment later.

"Very true," Nodoka agreed, already searching for their next target.

"One is not sure it suits you," Kaede added, but Nodoka was no longer heeding her words.

_Ah well. Can't save everyone,_ Kaede reasoned.

* * *

Musashi wrote that when swords crossed, the gun became useless. However, Musashi had only ever had to deal with flintlocks. Setsuna, having fought at Mana's side on several occasions, knew just how effective modern firearms could be, even to one whose blade was true. So she simply had to hope that the men she was fighting would be so startled by the sight of a petite woman darting among them and smashing them with the flat of her sword that they'd be completely overpowered.

And then the fine hairs on the back of her neck told her that at least one of them hadn't been, and she pushed herself to move faster, to swing the sword up into a guard position where she could deflect the bullets, but there wasn't going to be enough time and -

Abruptly a huge yellow spider leapt out of nowhere to land on the face of the mercenary who was drawing a bead on Setsuna, and with a shriek he went down on the ground, clawing helplessly at the apparently intangible creature that did nothing but skitter around in front of his eyes. Setsuna took a moment to dart a look of gratitude at Ayaka, who nodded in response as she kept the psychic attack going.

But there were still more opponents to face, and no time for words to be exchanged.

* * *

"Oh yeah, you want some, come get some!" Yuna howled as she sent bolt after bolt of blazing light towards her current enemies. After all the drama of the last few days, making like she was in a shoot-em-up video game came as sheer relief.

Yue had never been so completely terrified as she was right now. There had been more frightening moments than this, but she had always been busy during them, too busy to really think about what she was doing. Yuna's focus on dealing out damage left Yue free to think tactically, and that was what terrified her.

They were seriously, seriously outnumbered, and even the advantages of surprise and the disruption of enemy communications wouldn't last forever. Even though they seemed to be winning - for what Yuna shot with her artifact pistols didn't move again - eventually, the monsters and war machinery would be unleashed.

Eventually, they were going to get hurt.

"Cum on feel the noize!" Yuna sang as she kicked open a door to start blazing away at a new group of enemies.

Yue wished she had half that courage. Of course, half that courage would probably take up most of the space her brain used for her sense. So rather than making silly wishes, she kept her shields up and maintained the ones she'd put up around Yuna as well, not to mention scanning ahead for ambushes. No matter how scared she was, she could do that.

Eventually, they were going to get hurt.

But it wouldn't be because an Ariadne Knight didn't do her job.

* * *

"I'm very grateful you're here with me, Sayo-san," Negi said as he fired off another unincanted Sagitta Magica burst. It was crucial to save his energies for the conflict with Alladia that was sure to come, so he was still in his normal mode, using nothing more than basic spells.

"Really?" said Sayo, rather dubiously. "I don't think I'm being very much help, even in watching your back, sensei."

"You're doing fine," he assured her.

"Wouldn't you rather have Asuna-san here?"

"I would rather she was as far away from here as she could possibly be," he told her straightforwardly.

Sayo hesitated, then admitted, "I feel the same way about Asakura."

"I'm not surprised. I'm glad that you have someone who keeps you from loneliness," he told her, smiling warmly.

_Oh wow,_ Sayo thought. _Oh, I wish I had a body right now. Oh, I bet Satsuki wouldn't mind if I borrowed her for this. Ohhhhhh._ She imitated the action of swallowing. "So, why are you grateful that I'm here, sensei?" she asked faintly.

He promptly directed a pair of spells right through her at the mercenaries who were creeping up from concealed locations.

"Oh," she said, having had her question answered in a way that didn't really make her very happy.

* * *

Anticipation was the enemy, Akira decided as she waited with the others at the rally point. Waiting for something bad to happen, not having any method of preventing it from doing so ... agony greater than any injury could be. Of course, Akira also realized that she'd never really been hurt before, so maybe she was self-dramatizing a little.

"Ack!" said Asakura, flinching visibly as she sat surrounded by materialized screens.

"What? What happened?" Chisame asked, not turning away from her own displays.

"One of these bastards finally figured out what my remotes are, and took a shot at one of them. I just barely got it out of the way in - shit, we've got incoming wounded, Hakase, Makie-chan!"

"Yes ma'am!" Makie snapped as she dashed off with Hakase following along behind her. The idea was that she'd act as escort while Hakase was transporting the injured. How well this was going to work was still not clear, since they'd had no opportunity to practice, but -

"Who is it?" Konoka asked, dread clear in her voice. "Is it Set-"

"No, it's not her, but I'm not too clear, it looks like it's Ku Fei and Mana heading in, so it's probably -"

Before she could say anything further, Mana came into sight supported between Ku Fei and Makie, with a compress pressed to her jacket's left sleeve, which was still stained with blood. Satomi walked a bit behind them, acting as the escort this time.

"- Ku Fei," Asakura said quietly.

"Yes? What?" Ku Fei snapped as she helped Mana over to one of the blankets they'd set up as work stations.

"Sorry to disappoint," Mana said. "It's just a flesh wound, though, so Ako can probably handle it."

"Let me be the judge of what I can and can't handle," Ako replied as she pulled back the compress to examine the wound. "Okay, this doesn't look too bad, Konoka, please pass me that disinfectant."

"I just can't believe it was Mana that got hurt and -" Asakura started to stammer.

"I'm sorry, I forgot to wear my shirt with a big red S on it," Mana growled. "I've got news for you, Kazumi. This is an actual, genuine battle, and it doesn't matter how skilled or how tough you are, you can get hurt if the other guy gets a little lucky. Hurt or killed."

"Uh-huh, save the warrior philosophy lecture for later," Ako interjected as she sprayed the disinfectant over the wound track.

Satomi looked around a little oddly. "How geologically stable is this cavern system? I just felt a little tremor."

"It's probably just an aftershock from that quake yesterday," Makie supplied. "It knocked me off my feet while I was walking by the dorms."

"There was an earthquake yesterday?" Ako asked as she watched Mana improbably start blushing. Was she having some sort of delayed reaction to her injury?

* * *

Asuna dashed through the tunnels, not really sure where she was going. From the sounds of it, she was coming up on a battle, but who knew whether it was Negi's battle? If only she could reactivate the telepathic link without risking his safety! But that was a pipe dream, so -

"Asuna-kun!" she heard from behind her.

She whirled, blade up and ready. Then blinked. "Takahata-sen-" She broke off the honorific as she remembered what had just recently happened.

The former teacher had come out of one of the side tunnels, hands in his pockets in classic "Death-Specs" stance. His face was unreadable.

She didn't lower her sword. "What did you say to me before you kissed me for the last time?"

He nodded. "I said you'll be just as happy living in the dorms as you would be here."

Now she could relax. The doppleganger couldn't possibly know that.

"I take it that Arika-sama decided to act on my warning after all," he murmured, listening to the distant sounds of battle.

"Warning?" Asuna asked, then shook her head. "Well, when we found out who's behind it all, we kind of had to."

He looked at her sharply. "Who is it, then?"

She opened her mouth, then closed it. How much did he know about her past? Did he know it all, and was that why he'd ... well. Regardless, he needed an answer. "It's her father. Apparently he survived all that crap eighteen years ago. And now he wants revenge."

"Her father," Takahata said, looking at her steadily. "Who is also -"

So he does know. "Yes," she said. "Anyway, we've gotten the real Eishun-san freed, and, y'know, you could ask him to tell the headmaster it was all a big misunderstanding and -"

"I won't ask him to lie for me," Takahata replied, shaking his head. "Especially not about this."

So it was true. "Okay, then," Asuna said, feeling her heart break just a little bit. "If you want to help, feel free. We can use -"

"Asuna, I'm sorry."

"Yes you are," she agreed. _I won't cry. Not about this. I have Negi. I never really wanted Takahata-sensei. It was just a silly crush._ "Is this why you said you couldn't answer my feelings?" she demanded. "Because of what happened with Konoka?"

"Yes," he answered. "That was what finally convinced me that I couldn't possibly be worthy of them."

"Excuse me?"

"Asuna, you deserve far, far better than a man like me," he said, infinitely weary. "I am, frankly, a disgusting pervert, even without being drunk as I was when that happened. You are a wonderful, beautiful young woman with enormous potential. You shouldn't have your purity sullied by my touch. So whatever you do, you GHURK."

He broke off when she punched him in the stomach. Full-force.

"Purity?" she said, voice unsteady. "Purity? I was born in filth! I routinely have sex with my brother and my mother! Not to mention a few other people any time we get the chance! And you want to talk about my purity! I am not some innocent virgin princess, dammit! I am a real girl who screws up most of the time! Stop talking about what I deserve! You have no right to make those decisions for me! You have no right!"

And then, quite suddenly, they were kissing.

For just a moment. And then Asuna pulled away, face ashen. "Negi," she said, and turned and ran, leaving Takahata behind to stare at her retreating form.

* * *

Arika checked the door, determined it was locked through those weird extra-senses of hers, and nodded before stepping back. Haruna filled out the sketch she'd made based on a battering ram she'd seen in a movie a year or so ago, and then let it expand off the page until it smashed the door off its hinges. Then it slid back to allow them to charge in.

On the other side was a command centre much like the one Satomi had described when telling them about Chao's set-up. Standing in front of the monitors, glowering and bored-looking respectively, were the person that Arika had described to them as her father and the girl Haruna had seen a few times - Tsukuyomi.

"You!" Alladia hissed, making the word a curse.

"Me," Arika agreed, bounding over the desks to approach them. Fulfilling their expectations, Tsukuyomi stepped forward to stand between Arika and her master, drawing her sword.

"Kill them. Kill them both!" the man snapped.

Tsukuyomi tilted her head. "Nah," she said, then reversed her sword and drove it backwards towards Alladia's chest. She was close enough to him that it managed to go right through his torso and protrude through his back just a bit.

Alladia stared down at the sword sticking out of him, opened his mouth to say something only to be interrupted by a fountain of blood, and then slumped forward, his weight prompting Tsukuyomi to lower her blade and let him slide off.

She did this without even a glance. Her eyes were only on Arika. "Mommy," she said in tones of adoration. "At last, we meet."

* * *

This time, Akira felt the tremor too, and so did everyone else. "Asakura, is Negi using some sort of high-powered blasting spell or something?" Chisame asked.

"Not according to the eyes I've got on him right now. Cripes, could this be something the big bad is -" Asakura started to ask.

And then the floor shattered as the monster surged up from the hole it had burrowed, snarling as its four tentacles waved through the air. To Makie, it resembled nothing so much as one of the weirder monsters in one of her older brother's older video games, the ones he'd been playing when she was just a tiny little thing - a reaper, she remembered. But unlike that computerized creature, it didn't appear to be rooted in any one spot.

It swung just one of its tentacles like a whip towards Akira and Ku, smacking into them with the force of a car crash. They went flying back towards the subterranean lake; Ku hit the water at just the right angle to skip across the surface twice before she smacked into one of the pillars, then slid down into the water, stunned for the moment. Akira landed a bit more awkwardly, dropping into the lake at once.

Ignoring the pain in her ribs, she swam up to the surface to see that the monster had grabbed ahold of Mana with one of its other tentacles, then yanked her up into the air. Mana's guns, set down on the blanket where she'd been resting, were out of reach to her; she slid a smaller caliber gun out of her jacket sleeve and began firing without effect, save for forcing Satomi to step back from her own attempts to pummel it with her artifact's manipulators.

Another tentacle was used to pull it along the ground. That still left one to start reaching towards the other girls present.

That left one to start reaching towards Ako.

_Towards Ako._

With a howl of purest frustrated fury, Akira leapt out of the water and threw herself at the monster, throwing everything she had into a single punch. Apparently, that didn't settle the creature's hash, so she punched it again. And again. By now she had a good rhythm going, so she kept right on punching. Even when she dimly realized that she was punching dead flesh, she kept on punching. After all, who was to say that such creatures couldn't come back from the dead?

Only when she felt Ako wrapping her arms around her and softly, quietly whispering in her ear, words that she couldn't quite make out but which told her that she was safe, did she stop punching ... and slowly drop down to her knees.

Chisame, standing a safe distance away, looked from where the shattered remnants of the creature rested to the water from which Akira had leapt, and from which Konoka was presently trying to extract Ku Fei's injured form. She judged the distance to be about eight metres or so.

"Some of us," she said aloud, "have been spending far too much time with Negi ..."

* * *

"I'm not sure why you're calling me that," Arika said, slowly and carefully. "Because I'm fairly sure that I'm not your mother."

Tsukuyomi giggled. "Oh, don't be silly, mommy. I know that you're not the woman who gave birth to me. I killed that stupid bitch. But you're the mommy I was supposed to have, you see."

"Really," Arika said non-comittally.

"Oh, yes. Daddy told me all about you. It was so obvious that he was utterly in love with you, and so I decided he shouldn't have to settle for anything less. He was so mad about what I did though. I can't understand it, really. But anyway, I ran away to look for you, and then I got a little distracted with this and that, you know how it is, but here we are at last!"

"Yes. Here we are."

"Now I just have to kill a few more people and you can come back home to live with me and Daddy and everything will be wonderful again! You will do that, right?" Despite her persistently genial tone, there was a strong edge in that final question.

Arika sighed. "Unfortunately, young lady, you haven't learned one of the most important lessons of battle. You should never turn your back on an opponent that you're not sure is dead."

Tsukuyomi blinked and whirled to look at Alladia's corpse. "What do you mean?" she asked puzzledly. "He's dead."

"Yes," said Arika, and in a flash she was behind the girl and broke her neck with a single twist. "That's not who I was talking about," she added as the girl's body dropped to the floor, head turning as it hit the ground, so as to look up at her with an expression of utter betrayal. Arika met that gaze easily until the girl's eyes went dead.

"If you have a comment, please make it," Arika said, after a moment of silence.

"I'm a bit concerned that if I say the wrong thing, you'll kill me too," Haruna replied tersely.

"You have a valid concern."

Haruna swallowed, then continued. "I get why you did that. I'm not stupid; she said that she had to kill a few more people, so obviously she was talking about your kids. And I get that you'll do anything to protect them. It'd be heroic if it wasn't kind of disgusting."

"So noted," Arika said, examining the advanced decomposition of Alladia's body with a displeased expression. "Anything else?"

"Why the heck is he rotting like that?" Haruna asked, having come over to get a look for herself.

"Homonculous. Much as with certain of your world's dictators and their body doubles, or kagemusha to use the Japanese term, my father was prone to creating alchemical doubles of himself. As far as I knew, they had all been destroyed when Ostia was."

"But wouldn't a duplicate know he was -"

"Not necessarily." She didn't elaborate.

"So what now?" Haruna asked after another lull in the conversation.

"Now I go find the others and tell them that it's over, for the moment," Arika said, sounding very weary.

"Are you going to tell them everything?"

"I will tell them that she gave me no other choice. You would agree that is the case, would you not?"

Haruna stared at her, then nodded. "Yeah. Given the givens ... yeah."

And Arika smiled. "Good. Not only are you just as brave as your brother, you're just as flexible, too. I wonder whether you're also -"

"Don't even think about it," Haruna snarled as she turned to march away.

Of course, that just meant that Arika could do little else.

* * *

There are parts of the tale of heroic deeds that the stories generally leave out. One of them is the fact that when you beat a monster to death with your bare hands, you get fairly messy. Almost as soon as the report came in that the villain behind the scheme no longer troubled the world with his presence, and that his employees were surrendering in droves, Ako promptly dragged an unprotesting Akira off towards the gymnasium's showers.

Unprotesting might not be the term; unresponsive came closer. Akira seemed almost catatonic as Ako got her into the changing area, stripped off her ichor-stained clothes - unhesitatingly throwing them in the garbage once they were off - and then led her into the shower stall after undressing herself. Only when the shower started raining warm water down on them did the taller girl's eyes grow focused once more.

"Ftaghn," she said.

"Are you okay?" Ako asked, pausing in her scrubbing.

"I guess," Akira replied faintly. "I've never done anything like that before. I don't know what's okay after something like that."

"You saved my life. You probably saved all of us who were there, Akira," Ako reminded her.

"Yes, that's true," she agreed. "But I guess it's a good thing I couldn't make a pactio with sensei. I probably would have ended up getting some kind of axe, running around chopping people's heads off, talking only in declarative statements, eating cake in cheap hotel rooms -"

"Akira, stop it," Ako pleaded, even though it came out sounding like a whine. "You're a good person. You're my, one of my favorite people." To cover up the mild mistep, Ako went up on tip-toes to press a kiss against Akira's lips. This was just a bit dangerous to do on a wet floor, and Ako slipped as soon as she did so, falling forward to be caught in Akira's tight embrace, lifted up so that their lips could touch again, and so that one of Akira's hands could slide down past Ako's buttocks to the treasure between her legs.

Just as they were about to lose all sense of the outside world, a delicate cough intruded. "Uh ... not that I mind personally, of course, but this isn't really the most private place," Yuna observed from just outside the stall, wearing a towel wrapped around her and knotted at her breasts.

"Is anyone else -" Ako asked faintly.

"Uh, no. Just me. But, y'know, anyone could walk in and get an eyefull. Like I'm getting. Right now." Yuna wasn't sure why she added that last remark.

Nor was Akira entirely sure why she was moved to ask, "Do you just want to watch?"

Yuna blinked, opened her mouth, closed it, then opened her mouth again, raising a finger, and paused, closing her mouth to tap her cheek thoughtfully. With a sigh, she undid the knot at her breasts, letting the towel drop to the floor, before walking into the stall. "This is probably a bad idea," she said, and kissed Akira forcefully.

So strange, Akira thought. She would swear that she'd never even thought about doing this sort of thing with Yuna, outside of that one naughty dream, but something about this felt so familiar, so right. She kissed her back, raising up a hand to gently caress one of her friend's breasts.

This was unfamiliar territory for Ako. During their wild revelry with Madoka and Sakurako, she'd usually had the sense that all the attention was on her, that she was being made love to by all of them, or being shared by them if you wanted to be more crass. With this, she was aware that Yuna's attention was definitely on Akira, with her presence as almost an afterthought.

She didn't really like that. But on the other hand, wasn't this how Akira must have felt when watching her with the others? Thought about that way, this was almost karma. So she decided to endure it without complaint. She joined Yuna in making their mutual love feel good, taking Akira's right nipple into her mouth as Yuna took the left, pushing Akira back against the stall wall and reaching down in unison to caress the treasure between her legs, and -

"What the heck?"

As one, they turned to see a fully dressed Makie staring at them from outside the stall. Her eyes almost looked like white circles.

"Uh," said Akira.

Ako found herself nearly inclined to gigglingly declare that it wasn't what it looked like. Why not? Why not indulge in cliche?

"I brought some clothes from your place, Akira-chan, since yours were kind of messed up by ... all that," Makie said after a moment. "Um, I-I'll just leave them on the bench, and then I'll be going. Yeah." She started to back away.

"Makie, you don't have to -" Akira started to say.

"Yeah, yeah, I think I do," Makie said, nodding. "Um ... if this is the kind of stuff you're planning on doing, then, well, uh, d-don't bother inviting me along. See ya. Or whatever." And then she turned and ran away.

After a moment of silent consideration, Yuna spoke up. "Well, great. We've lost a friend through sluttiness."

"I'm a wicked woman, and I'm making all of you wicked too," Ako groaned.

"Okay," said Akira, firmly. "We need to go talk to Madoka and Sakurako and get this thing worked out. Then we can explain to Makie that she doesn't have to worry about any of us making her do anything she doesn't want to do or seducing her or anything like that. Right?" she added, glaring just a little.

"Right," said Ako, nodding vigorously.

"Right," muttered Yuna, not quite able to meet Akira's gaze.

"Right," said Akira, deciding to take this as a victory.

* * *

Lying on her bed, carefully examining the latest Victoria's Secret catalogue for her next strategic purchase, Kakizaki Misa was abruptly aroused from her studies by the sound of a knock on the door. She idly entertained the notion of not answering it. It wasn't like it was a boy, after all. Any would-be gentleman callers would be stopped at the dormitory's entrance, and those with whom she was already acquainted would know her cell number and know how to call and arrange a meeting.

That meant that whoever was knocking on her door was probably one of her classmates. And the allure of a quiet evening at home, freed of the drama into which Madoka and Sakurako had recently descended, was great indeed. In contrast, opening the door to whatever drama was waiting for her on the other side was not nearly such a pleasant thought.

But then there was another knock, and Misa realized, regretfully, that whoever it was would not be dissuaded by her attempts to create the illusion that no one was home. So she closed her catalogue, filed it away in the nightstand drawer with the others, and got up and headed to the door.

"Hey, Ako," Misa said, trying to be as polite as possible to a nominal friend. "Akira-san. Yuna-san. What brings you here this evening?"

"We need to talk to Kugimii and Saku," Ako answered for the group. "Are they here?"

"Nope," Misa answered, not bothering to keep the complete lack of regret out of her voice. "I think they're on a date, with each other, if you can believe that ... buuut then again, I suppose some of you wouldn't find that all that surprising," she added after a moment's consideration.

Ako looked crestfallen. "On a date?"

"It's, it's probably just a friendly meal between friends," Akira tried to reassure her.

"Well, there's definitely going to be some eating out," Misa said bluntly. "They've been doing it pretty much constantly. It's very distracting. A little funny, like when that earthquake happened yesterday, and Saku's all happy and saying, 'It really does happen!'" she explained, delivering the last phrase in a frighteningly good imitation of Sakurako's voice.

Yuna glared. "Y'know, it occurs to me that maybe we shouldn't be having conversations like this out in the hallway where anyone can overhear them?"

Misa shrugged. "C'mon in, then." She stood back to let them walk past her into the room, then closed the door. "Should I take it from your presence that you're now involved in this polygon they've got going?" she asked Yuna once that was done.

"Yeah," Yuna replied. "Should I take it from your comments that you're not?"

"Oh yeah," Misa said firmly. "I mean, really, whatever makes you happy, but the only way I'm doing anything with a girl is if some guy is giving me a realllly good present."

Ako and Akira flinched as they sat down beside each other on the same bed they'd been in earlier. For her part, Yuna just glared. "Does the commodification of your sexuality not bother you at all?" she asked.

"Nope," she answered bluntly, inwardly marveling at Yuna's unexpected sophistication. Maybe having a teacher for a dad did do her a few favors. "Does being expected to receive only transient emotional gratification for the use of your sexuality not bother you at all?"

"Okay, what are you talking about?" Akira interjected.

"I'm talking about how queen enjo kosai here is basically just prostituting herself," Yuna said scornfully.

"Hey!" Ako said, frowning. "Don't say mean things like that!"

"Ako, relax. I don't get bothered by the term," Misa said. "Don't you think it's a little funny that her attitude can basically be summarized as, 'It's wrong for a woman to receive payment for services rendered, when those services are sexual in nature?' Can you think of another area where anyone, male or female, is not only expected to do something for no pay but is actually criminalized for accepting it?"

"But ... sex is something you're supposed to do with someone you love," Akira pointed out.

"That's what I mean by transient emotional gratification," Misa said patiently. "Think about it. Suppose you're 'in love' and then you get dumped and fall 'out of love'. What do you have to show for the weeks you spent 'in love'? Bittersweet memories, at best. In contrast, if you make sure to get presents every time you have sex, when the relationship is over, you still have the presents." She pointed at her earrings. "I haven't seen the guy who gave me these in months. Aren't they nice?"

"This is pointless," Yuna said as she headed for the door. "Whatever we were hoping to find here, this bullshit isn't it. I'm going back to bed."

"You wouldn't expect someone with such an obvious crush on their daddy to be such a prude, would you?" Misa asked her two remaining guests as she sat down on her own bed facing them. "Okay. Let me guess. You two came to try and resolve this thing you've got going with Madoka and Sakurako, right?"

"Well, yes," Ako said as Akira nodded.

"Why?" Misa asked bluntly. "I mean, Saku's okay with things. And Madoka ... well, let's not kid ourselves, she's never going to be happy no matter what happens, so why do you think making a change in this thing will help her?"

"It's not really -" Akira started to explain.

"I don't want to lead people on!" Ako burst out.

"Then don't," Misa said.

"But, but I'm having all these dreams about things I might end up doing, and -"

"Then don't do them."

"But what if I can't stop myself?"

"Then give yourself permission to screw up!" Misa said, sounding very frustrated. "Cripes, Ako. You're not perfect - join the club! You're going to get hurt and you're probably going to hurt other people. Make mistakes, then get over them. Just be careful about birth control if you're doing stuff with guys, and the treacherous world of adult pleasures can be pretty cool."

Ako hesitantly looked up at Akira. "Are you okay with all of this?" she asked. "With me ... bouncing around between you and everyone else?"

"I-I want you to be happy," Akira replied, just as hesitantly. "I'd be happier if you were happy with just me ... but then, we're not the only people on this planet, are we."

"And, y'know, you're fifteen and a little young to be thinking about permanent relationships," Misa noted. "Just saying."

* * *

Yuna stalked away from the cheerleaders' room in a very bad mood. Nice going, she told herself. Not only have I probably driven away Makie forever, I've probably pissed off Ako and Akira too. Dad doesn't want me, I've blown off all my friends. I'm a big damn hero and nobody knows or cares. If this keeps up, I'm going to have to start dressing all in black, wearing shades, and drinking espresso.

It abruptly came to her that there were, in fact, those who knew and cared, and who had shown that caring somewhat directly. But would they really welcome her?

Yuna paused outside the door to Asuna and Konoka's room. Hesitantly, she raised a hand, and, after a moment of delay, knocked.

It opened a minute later, revealing Arika in a loosely belted housecoat and slippers. The former queen smiled broadly at her. "Yuna-chan," she said, almost purring. "I was hoping you would join us this evening."

Yuna swallowed. "Then ... we're having a party?" She could faintly hear moans and sighs from the room behind Arika.

"Of course," Arika said, looking surprised at the question. "We have had a victory, after all, and such things should be celebrated. Come in, my dear. Much is waiting for you."

With a sigh of relief, Yuna entered the room, and closed the door behind her.

* * *

Almost as soon as hostilities had ended, Mana had called the situation in to Konoemon, both to arrange for someone to take their prisoners into custody and to make sure that he knew to release the money he now owed her. (Retainers were nice, but bonuses were better.) Mahora's magic teachers had swarmed the tunnels, and great vows had been made to make sure that no one could ever use these passages for ill-purpose ever again.

A cynic might say that had been said before. In fact, a cynic named Hasegawa did say just that. But no one paid her any attention.

The body of the woman called Tsukuyomi, as well as the few remains of the homonculous who'd commanded the intruders, were gathered up and taken to the local morgue. Unless someone claimed them, they would be cremated within the next few days. Only the stains left on the floor of the room where they'd died remained to mark their passing.

Later that night, however, one came to observe those marks. "That went well," he said.

"I'm pleased that you're pleased, sir," his companion replied nervously.

"I'm unhappy that you didn't warn me about the Yukihiro girl's telepathy, mind, but everything else happened more or less as I predicted, based on your intelligence about their capabilities. I have their measure, now, I think."

"Yes, sir." Chamo had never been this terrified, not even when Eva had growled at him. But flight was not an option.

Alladia drew in a sigh as he examined where the homonculous had died. "Foolish daughter," he mused cheerfully. "You should know not to believe things you read in books. Even books that read minds - for memory can be altered so easily.

"Tomorrow, by the living god, we'll try the game again." And he laughed.

* * *

Much later, after the party had settled down to sleep for a while, Negi found himself squeezed between his sister on one side and his sister on the other.

"I'm a little worried about what we didn't find in those tunnels," Chisame mused as she rubbed Negi's cheek gently. "There was that one robot that I shut down, but that thing that attacked the base camp was the only monster ... and the intelligence Honya got out of the bad guy was talking about robots and monsters."

"It's probably just delusions of grandeur on his part," Asuna opined. For her part, she was thinking about what had passed between her and Takahata. She'd thought she was over him, but then why had she ended up kissing him. It didn't make sense. Negi was the one that she cared about. Negi was her everything.

"I can't help but think that I've forgotten something," Negi mused wearily, just on the verge of falling asleep. "Something kind of important."

They waited to hear whether he remembered it, but all that came from him after a moment were the soft sounds of sleep. Slowly he curled up against Chisame's breasts. This made her look a little smugly in Asuna's direction.

"Oh, shut up," Asuna growled.

"Didn't say anything," Chisame said softly but brightly.

* * *

At Heathrow airport, around that time, a woman walked up to the flight counter and handed a reservation slip to one of the attendants.

"Name please," he said in a bored tone.

"Nekane Springfield," she replied. "I'm going to visit my little brother."

_NEXT: Fate_


	34. Fate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was primarily written by OverMaster

He stood alone on the gigantic boulder, hands in his pockets. The harsh dry breeze blew through his gray hair, dirtying it with dust brought from the plains below.

He didn't care, of course. He welcomed the familiar caress of his favored element, ground, with something almost resembling fondness. It helped him to distract his mind from the sounds coming back from the camp.

Only one female voice, so similar to his own. He hadn't heard a single word from the other females in his life since he had sent them away, to make their own lives. Even now, he had to reassure himself it had been for their own good. He would be a wanted evildoer forever, despite Negi-kun's testimony, but they didn't have to share his destiny. There was still salvation, redemption, for them, if they only stayed far away from him. Forever.

No, his place was with those like him.

Literally.

The ground under his feet trembled for a moment just as Quartum and Sextum raised their voices, and Fate gritted his teeth. At the very least, it kept them busy. But on the other hand, it was horribly... what was the word? Annoying? Not exactly. Disgusting? Perhaps, but he couldn't find much of a moral inclination either way. Maybe Dynamis could have found the word for him, although getting a straight answer from him once the word was found would have been a wholly different story.

But Dynamis was not there either, but rather a prisoner placed under maximum security. They had barely escaped the same treatment, and that was only because of an escape Negi-kun had allowed them, despite most of his own group's protests.

_Negi-kun._

Everything always came back to Negi-kun, didn't it? And yet, Fate was fairly sure they'd never meet again. Once more, it probably was for the best. For both of them. Even if he didn't feel it that way deep inside, in that certainly annoying part of himself that had manifested itself lately.

Maybe they'd just come to blows again if their paths crossed once more. And not the friendly sort of fisticuffs Negi-kun could share with that Inugami simpleton. Because, after all, Negi-kun had destroyed his master and creator, and while Fate could understand that, what passed for his heart never could forgive it.

_Negi-kun._

Without the creator, his fellow puppets had lost their strings, leaving him to pick them up as best as he could. There had only been a chance for his fellow Averunci, however. All but Secundum and Primum, that was. Those two still had their fragments scattered across the desert. Fate, in all honesty, couldn't regret it.

Again, it was all Negi-kun's fault, or something to thank Negi-kun for. Or both things at once, really. Maybe things would be much easier now if he hadn't foiled their plan back then. At the very least, Fate was fairly sure he wouldn't need to wander away from civilization with three aimless siblings who were far too twisted for his liking. Now he truly appreciated the simple, agreeable nature of the girls he'd never see again.

For their own good, he reminded himself.

Briefly, the thought passed through his mind. _When will I do something for my own good?_

He knew, or suspected, that he didn't deserve it, and yet, the vague, unvoiced need was there.

But beings like him could never have a happy ending.

He finally turned back around and walked back to the camp when the loud screams finally stopped. He walked past his two naked siblings as they lounged around on the ground, breathing louder than usual.

They were making breathing sounds, Fate observed. In a way, that was good. It meant they were acting more human.

On the other hand, acting more human, often, was a bad thing as well.

He pretended to ignore them as he checked on Quintum's location. He found his always quiet sibling sitting on top of a huge boulder, fully dressed, looking away from them all, his gaze lost in the horizon.

"Anyone, anywhere?" Fate asked.

"Not a single being for hours," Quintum droned, never looking at him.

"Good."

Quartum spoke again, running a hand up his face. "This is all pointless."

Fate didn't deign that with a reply, choosing to look through his own belongings instead. "We're running out of coffee again. It'll have to last us until we can reach the next town."

Quartum groaned, turning around to lay on his stomach. "You know I don't drink that stuff."

"Yes, yes, I know." Fate exhaled a very brief puff of air.

For a moment, none of them did or say anything, except for Sextum, who shifted aside lazily, a hand running over Quartum's bare right flank, caressing it with slowly-moving soft fingers.

"Will I be sent for the coffee again?" she finally asked.

"Yes," Tertium said, without hesitation.

"I could go," Quintum blandly offered, which was an oddity on itself. He rarely did anything without being asked first. Fate pondered if that meant a progress on his personal development, and considered rewarding it with a permission to go, but hesitated. Since they were so similar, humans were able to identify him easily, while Sextum usually attracted less unwanted attentions. Other than those a pretty girl tended to attract in the bad lands, at least.

A pretty girl.

"I'll think about it," Fate ended up saying. He fished a book out and began reading, not really paying that much attention to the words. He had read it before.

"We're wandering in circles," Quartum was saying now.

"Only until we figure a new course out," Tertium replied, with infinite patience.

"When will that be?" Sextum asked.

"You'll be the first one to know when it happens," the Averruncus of Earth promised.

More silence.

"Maybe we should surrender," Quintum of all people broke the silence, his voice barely above a whisper. "Then they would at least assign us a destination."

"I wonder what has become of the Master," Sextum wondered.

"I'm sure he's okay," Fate said.

"At the very least, I'm sure he isn't traveling around with no purpose." Quartum picked a rock up and crushed it between his fingers. "Even a jail would be better than this. There, at least you can focus. Or they'd put us back in storage. There, at least we wouldn't feel anything."

Fate closed the book. "You're free to go. As long as you don't harm anyone."

Quartum grumbled, tapping on his own skull with a finger. "We were programmed to never surrender unless ordered to, remember?"

"I might order you to surrender to them, if you really wish it so," Fate looked back at him.

"It won't work, and you know it. You don't have the official rank for it," Quintum said. Blandly as ever.

"Then stay with me, and learn how to be more human-like," Fate repeated for the umpteenth time. Again, infinite patience. "And once you can override the programming, you'll be able to do anything you want. As long as - "

"We know! The humans!" Quartum held a hand up, his voice brimming with frustation.

Sextum only smirked, apparently more than faintly amused.

At first, Tertium had thought seeing them developing human emotions would feel ... rewarding.

Now it was almost... what was the word, again? Disgusting? Worrying? Uncomfortable?

No. Unsatisfactory.

That was it.

"I brought your coffee."

The soft voice of Sextum snapped him back to reality after a long time spent sitting on the camp's edge, thinking of things to come, bust mostly of things and faces from the past. He looked up at that pale face, so similar to his own, peeking under the gray cloth hood, shirt bangs of whiteish hair framing her features. The face, as usual, bore little in the way of expression.

"Thank you," Fate said.

Those two words still sounded fascinatingly alien to him. He had only complimented the girls on particularly good key efforts, but he was trying to learn how to thank people in a routine basis. Unfortunately, only Sextum gave him any actual reasons to be consistently thankful.

Then he asked a question for the first time ever. "Do you want to drink it with me?"

Sextum said nothing for a moment. Then nodded twice, and spoke in something barely above a whisper. "I would like that, yes."

He had to admit it to himself, it felt strangely comforting, to feel her proximity while drinking together, before the fire. He had not felt that way for a very long time. He looked at her, his sister, his companion, part of something he belonged to as well, for better or worse. The four of them only had each other now, but even so, Fate could feel Sextum was the only one he actually wanted to be guiding. Quartum and Quintum were duties, and he was a dutiful person, so he wouldn't complain about them, no matter how tempting it could seem at times. But he could feel the roots of something different in Sextum.

 _You are fooling yourself,_ something warned him.

No.

_You want to find that other person in her. But she is not like that. Not even close._

No.

_She is just as bad as both of them. She simply is not as open about it. And that, if anything, makes her worse._

No. He could feel the potential in her. She was not a sadist like Quartum, and showed more personality, more self-worth, than Quintum. That was what made her salvageable. She was more like an actual person.

_We'll never be actual persons. No matter what Negi-kun says._

"Tertium," his sister spoke again.

"Yes?" he took a final, deep hot sip.

"Do you really want to do this?"

"What?"

The girl looked away. "Unlike us, you have options. You don't need to be here with us. you could go with Shiori and the others, or travel to the Old World. No one would look for you there. Instead, you remain here with us. Why?"

"I'm still trying to find the answers to that myself. I only know I cannot leave you behind."

"You owe us nothing."

"I know."

"And then, why?"

"I've told you. I don't know yet."

The female looked down. "I understand."

"Sextum."

"What?" was her turn to ask.

"If you had another option, another place to go, would you leave for that place?"

She nodded, never doubting. "Yes. I would like having a purpose again. I truly dislike being here, doing nothing in an endless stream of empty days. But I would still like to bring you three there."

"Even though I'm a traitor?"

"There is no cause left to betray anymore, Tertium. The victors write history, and theirs are the winning arguments."

Finally, he bothered to demand something he had wanted to say for months. "I would like to be called Fate."

"I'm sorry, Fate."

And he smiled a bit, cupping her cold left cheek in a hand. "Thanks."

"Fate," she repeated the word. "Is being a human so important for you?"

Yes.

No.

The two answers stalemated inside of him, so he said nothing.

Sextum rested her chin on his shoulder. It felt nice. "Are you still trying to find the answer for that as well?"

Now he could speak. "Yes."

She cupped his cheek in turn, and smiled briefly. It was the first time ever he had seen her smiling. "I want to look for it with you."

And she leaned ahead, tenderly placing her lips against his.

Fate had begun wondering why had Quartum and Quintum taken so long in their perimeter patrol, but right now, right then, for once, he completely forgot about them. He never had been kissed like this before.

His Pactios with his followers had been mere obligations at the time. Perhaps now, he would have kissed them differently, but back then, they were only tools for a goal. He had felt literally nothing when his lips made contact with theirs, other than the brief jolt of bonding magic.

After that, he never had kissed them again. The night before their separation, Homura grew bold enough to sneak into his quarters and offer herself to him, perhaps in a final desperate attempt to hold onto him, perhaps only to have a strong final memory of him. In either case, he'd rejected her then, as gently as he could - which, unfortunately, wasn't saying much. He didn't regret it; stronger links only meant stronger pains after such links were broken.

He had done what he needed to do.

And yet, feeling those cold but impossibly soft lips on his, palating their strange flavor as Sextum kissed him so deeply, he had to wonder if he would feel differently kissing Homura now. Or Tamaki. Or Koyomi. Or Shiori, sweet, innocent, beautiful Shiori.

Or Negi-kun.

Fate pulled away from the kiss.

"Something wrong, Brother?" Sextum's silky, intoxicating voice asked. Her large clear eyes were half closed, lazily, invitingly, although her tone was not blatantly provocative.

"We can't do this," he said.

"Why not? Quartum, Quintum and I do it all the time, and you have never raised protests about it."

"I'm different."

She lifted a hand up, prompting Fate to instantly ready himself for a strike, However, she only ran her fingers through his hair, almost maternally. "Tertium - forgive me, Fate. I keep forgetting you favor that name. You keep saying you are different, and yet you also say you want to help us become more human. Those statements are mutually incompatible. If you truly wish help us gain humanity, you must have humanity yourself. And this, no matter how much it may scare you, is part of being human, as well."

His eyes narrowed. "I am not scared."

"Yes. Yes, you are," Sextum disagreed, soft but firm. "Death has never scared you, Brother, but life, actual life, does. You yearn for it, and yet you fear what it implies. You fear to establish relationships. You want to help others, but try to do while keeping everyone away. That's why you'll never be able to help Quartum."

Fate almost seethed. "You don't know the first thing about helping others."

"Then teach me."

She grabbed his face, pulling his mouth back towards hers. This time, the kiss was slower and even deeper, confusing him, actually frightening him. He had not felt that way ever since Nagi and Rakan appeared out of nowhere and hit him during the fight with Negi.

Negi.

No. Negi wasn't there, and he'd never be again.

He had to leave his memory behind, and make his own road.

Fate began to kiss back, clumsily, without even instincts to guide him. Only the vaguest of suppositions on how it should be done, and the vague memories of the few times he had bothered to look at his sibling units while they entertained themselves. Sextum was calmly unbuttoning her shirt while her mouth worked on his, freeing her small, milky and perky breasts.

Calmly, patiently, she taught him how to lick them, like she had come to like. It pleased her to notice how it felt better than Quartum's mad ravishings or Quintum's mechanical notions, despite Tertium's complete inexperience. All the while, her hands worked diligently on his belt, then pulled the pants down.

He was just as big as his brothers. The masters had bothered to make them anatomically correct in case they needed to be seen in public baths or similar situations without arising suspicions. Now, exactly why such parts were functional even in matters not related to combat or infiltration at all, it was probably best left unknown. The masters could be very strange at times.

She guided him to lay on his back on the ground, straddling him while undoing her own pants, baring her body to his sight, then taking his short off as well. Analytically, she caressed his body mass, toying with the nipples to see if it got any reaction. It did.

Again, what were the masters thinking?

"Don't fear," she whispered, soothingly, placing her crotch right above his. Her hands were planted on his hard chest now. "It'll feel good. I promise."

Then she lowered herself onto him, and Fate gasped, his hands clawing into the dirt.

"I love you, Big Brother," she said so softly he couldn't hear her.

Then she began to ride him, humping him vigorously. Fate remained almost still other than the jerking, erratic motions of his thrusting hips, attempting to assimilate those impossible sensations marking even more burning questions into his mind.

"Fate," she hissed.

"Ah," was all he could say.

She kissed his mouth again, and the cold fire of those lips was something his followers never came close to matching. Since he was becoming more human, it was just natural for him to learn new ways to do things, wasn't that right? It made sense. Perhaps their siblings had, on their own, made breakthrough discoveries he had overlooked or ignored.

And now, he had to admit this felt very good, physically speaking. He was gifted with a skill to duplicate most physical activities on his first attempts at them, and copying Quartum's intimate actions was proving to be no exception, despite the fact he had barely had paid any attention ever before.

From his sister's soft but eager sounds of approval, Fate figured he was doing it right. Sextum had instructed him to shift positions, and Fate had gone along with it. She was on her back on the dirt, as he knelt between her legs, grabbing her thighs and keeping them spread as his penis drilled into her vaginal opening. It was ... strangely satisfying, in a way he couldn't quite put into words. Apparently neither could she, since everything coming out of her mouth was fairly unintelligible. Again, much like when she was with Quartum and Quintum.

Then he felt that even stranger sensation building up in him, and he gasped, tossing his head back. She noticed and gently caressed his cheek. "It's okay. Let go."

Her voice was so flat, and yet so curiously tender, as was her touch, and that, for some reason, made him lose control over himself. He felt something wet coming out of it, splurting inside of Sextum, as she made some low, calculated sounds of pleasure. That made him feel even better, even as he planted his hands on the ground, breathing heavier, pale hair falling on his face.

"It was good. For a first time," she said.

And then there was a sneer. "Isn't that just like Tertium? Outdoing everyone without even trying?"

The third Averruncus looked up at the newcomers, standing a few feet away. He should have felt them coming. Why hadn't he? Were Sextum's attentions so overpowering, they had managed to break down his perennial guard?

"Gotta hand it to you, sister," Quartum snickered, nonchalantly strolling ahead, hands in his pockets. "I never thought you'd actually manage to snare Tertium. Not our perfect, all knowing, much better and more powerful older brother, no. But then, what do I know? I'm only Quartum."

Quintum stood behind, advancing fairly slower, his face as expressionless as ever. He said nothing, although his eyes fell on Sextum's naked frame with regularity.

Quartum undid his pants, gesturing for Tertium to step aside. "My turn, 'Brother'. At least in this, I was here first."

Fate remained still for a few moments, for once at a loss about what do do. But then Sextum gently guided him out of her, motioning for him to get behind her, while Quartum took his place between her legs. Quintum approached further, and Sextum had to actually undo his pants for him before taking his member into her mouth. He still needed guidance for so many things.

Quartum, on the other hand, did not. He already was pumping in and out of her, grabbing her hips and licking her breasts with loud slurps. "See, this is how it's done, Tertium," he crowed. "It's much better this way. Much more human, see? Don't you love humans, like your precious Negi-kun? Then do things the way they do! Stick your thing over there!"

"My... thing...?" Fate stared down, noticing it had started to regain hardness. Sextum shifted her hips up, thrusting her behind to him, and he understood. Slowly, he pushed his virility into the tiny opening between her buttocks, finding it frankly uncomfortable at first.

"Yes. Like that," Quartum licked his lips, before kissing Sextum's mouth and Quintum's member at once, forcefully. "What a pretty family we are, huh? A shame Dynamis isn't here. He knew a few really good tricks."

"Tricks?" Fate wondered aloud, but none of them bothered to answer. Perhaps for the best, actually, if Quartum was not simply attempting a mocking remark.

Taken from all directions, Sextum shook between the men like a ragdoll that had fallen into a press. It was getting harder for Fate to think logically. The building feeling was growing again in his lower parts, as he heard Quartum's rapid, raspy chuckles, and Quintum's brief, ever bland sounds of comfort. Something was still lacking. Sadly, he knew what it was.

_Negi-kun._

Quartum looked at him, challengingly. "Thinking of him again, aren't you? It's all that you do. That stupid Springfield. You don't need him. You're an Averruncus. Feel damn proud of it for once."

Fate opened his mouth to protest, but then Quartum kissed him over Sextum's shoulder, never stopping pouncing into her. It was a savage, cruel kiss, much as his hips thrusts. Quartum was biting and chomping at his brother's lips now, as if actually trying to hurt him. "You're pathetic, Tertium."

And then, for the first time since that fight at the ruins, he felt anger again. "I have told you," he growled, withdrawing from Sextum. She moaned. "My name is Fate."

And then he was behind Quartum instead, grabbing his waist and claiming him from behind. The Fire Averruncus growled, but now his voice held no rage or spite. And Fate realized he had been played, so easily, like a newborn, but he just couldn't care any less.

"Negi-kun," he snarled, possessively, reaching down to tug on Quartum's dangling testicles.

Quartum only chuckled again, hugging Sextum tighter against himself. "By the Lifemaker, you're... ungh... so sad!"

"Negi-kun," Fate repeated, ignoring him. All he could feel under him was the lithe but athletic body of Negi, and he only could hear his soft, yet firm gasping for him.

"Fate-kun!"

It felt better than Sextum.

Much better.

Fate let himself go again.

The three of them now slept tangled in a pale mass of bare flesh under the cloudy skin. Technically, they did not need to sleep, but they had taken to it lately, perhaps partially as a mean to cope with long hours with nothing to do, perhaps partially as a somewhat involuntary display of those troubling developing human traits.

In any case, Quartum and Quintum were in each other's arms, while Sextum clung to his back, her small hands on his sides. It felt good. And yet, it still was not enough.

Fate looked into the gray horizon of the badlands, towards Ostia, the place he had sworn to never return. He thought of his creators, left behind forever; of his followers, left to each others' care; of that whole, huge, troubled, corrupted world and the one beyond it.

_Negi-kun._

Mostly, he thought of him. He remembered his smile, the last he'd seen of him when they separated. Fate took a handful of dust and squeezed it in his fist. Negi. Flying away from him, like the wind leaving the ground after caressing it. The ground would always remain there, constant, unmoving, but the wind would always flow away.

He punched the ground and got up, not bothering with the clothes. He walked to the edge of the nearby abyss, overlooking the whole endless plains below, the dry wind hitting his serene face, messing his hair. Feeling his absence, Sextum blinked awake and stood up as well, walking after him, hips slowly shifting around with each step. She hugged him from behind, pressing her bare body against his. "Fate."

"I don't know if I deserve that name," he confessed. "Or the one they first gave me. I have betrayed all the causes I have served, failed at all of them. I deserve this exile from everything, but I'd rather just vanish into nothingness."

She squeezing him tighter. "No. Not from everything. Not while we are here."

Absently, without looking back, he reached up with a hand and caressed her hair. It was not a passionate caress, but neither as paternal as the few tokens of physical appreciation he ever gave his Ministra.

She, in turn, rested her chin on his shoulder. "Cursed as we may be by our past, alone as we may be forced to stand, I am still glad I am at your side, even if there is nothing left to fight. We may lack a purpose now. We might be left without one for years. But when one appears, I wish to take it with you."

"Me too," he said, without lying. And yet, deep inside what he supposed was his heart, or what Negi-kun had told him was his soul, it couldn't be enough.

That part of him would be left empty forever.

_Negi-kun._

Empty, and even more lacking a purpose than everything else.

He squeezed his sister's hand tighter.

_NEXT: Nekane_


	35. Nekane

Nekane Springfield began the longest day of her life by closing the door to her cottage, locking it, then turning to hand the key to Anya. "If you pick up the mail every other day, and water the plants, that should be all that's required," she told her. "Of course, if someone does break in, call the constable before you check to see what's missing."

"I'll take good care of your hourse, Nekane-neechan. You can count on me," the much younger girl assured her. "How long will you be gone?"

Nekane shook her head, fighting the urge to wince. Anya had a genuine knack for striking at the root of someone's concerns. "I don't know. I'll be over there as long as Negi and his mother need me. Hopefully, we'll find Uncle Nagi shortly. That would be the happiest possible ending for all of us." It would, she told herself. It would.

Anya was frowning, and Nekane suspected that the girl was picking up on her moods. To forestall a question she wasn't ready to answer, Nekane struck first. "I'm a little surprised, though, that you're not eager to come with me to visit with Negi. You didn't get to spend a lot of time with him this summer, after all."

Promptly, Anya sniffed and turned her head to the side. "Who cares about that?" she snapped. "What time I did spend with him, he and that Asuna wench were mooning over each other like lovesick puppies. It was sickening! What does she see in him, I'd like to know!"

Nekane smiled faintly. "Oh, I imagine that one day, you'll be in the same position."

"Never going to happen!" Anya almost shouted. "I'll never be that loopy over some stupid boy!"

"No, you probably won't," said Nekane cheerfully. _Of course, that doesn't at all invalidate what I said before._ Her smile grew gentler as she reached down to turn Anya's chin to face her, and hugged the smaller girl to her. "Thank you again, Anya, for taking time from your training to look after my home. I'm very grateful."

Anya blushed brightly. "Well ... you're welcome," she said.

"Well, then. I'll be off," Nekane said, after she released her young friend from the embrace. "Be happy, Anya."

Anya was frowning again as she watched Nekane walk away with her suitcase in her hand. That had been an odd way of saying goodbye, hadn't it?

Nekane walked down into the village where she'd spent most of her life, reminiscing as she went. There were so many memories. She kept her mind off the more horrific ones, the night of pain and the long days of healing and rehabilitation that had followed, only remembering the good times now. But no one could hide from the past forever, and, in the fullness of time, her steps brought her to the building where the petrified villagers were stored.

She considered going down there to offer a farewell to her father's statuesque form, and to her grandfather as well, but before she could decide to do so, her contemplations were interrupted as someone came up the stairs and blinked in the light.

"Ah, Nekane," Donet said. "I hope you're well."

"Ms. McGuiness," Nekane replied with a nod. "I'm very well, thank you."

"No need for such formality, dear," Donet said. "I sometimes think we've all picked up a little too much Japanese, here. I've known you for, oh my, was it ten years ago that you started attending the academy?"

"It was only eight. I was ... delayed," Nekane said. "But of course, you're right. Donet, then. Is the Magus well?"

"Oh, the old fool will probably outlive us all," the other woman said dismissively.

Nekane wasn't fooled for a moment. The stroke that had nearly laid the master of the college low a few months ago, which he had barely recovered from when Negi made his brief return to the village, had had them all scared. His partner, the bodyguard he had chosen and who had worked with him for nearly twenty years, would never be so cavalier about his health. But rumors had to be squashed.

"Are you here to visit them?" Donet asked abruptly.

"I was considering it," Nekane admitted. "After all, I am leaving for Japan later today, and anything can happen once one gets on a plane -"

"It's the safest way to travel, dear," Donet interrupted.

Nekane didn't agree with those statistics; while there might indeed be more automobile accidents than airplane crashes, people were more likely to walk away from the former than the latter.

"Well, I'm just glad that someone visits them. I didn't know most of them, of course, and it's not as though they can hear anyone talking, or understand how sorry one is ..." Donet trailed off, looking back at the doorway.

Nekane just nodded. "But on the other hand, maybe you're right. It's silly to be worrying about the chance that I might never see them again, just because I'll be taking an airplane trip today," she said after a moment of thought.

"That's a much healthier attitude," Donet said approvingly.

"Mm. Shall I remember you to Akashi-sensei, should I see him?" Nekane asked.

Donet flinched. "No," she said at length. "No. I think that's a conversation that I'll have to have personally, one of these days. At least I've already apologized to one of her parents," she added in a murmur that just barely reached Nekane's ears.

"Eh?"

"Never mind. Good day to you, and enjoy your trip." The older woman sauntered off, looking a little more depressed than she had earlier.

Nekane looked again at the door. Her father and grandfather weren't down there, she knew. Wherever what had made them into themselves was absent from the stone forms their bodies had been transformed into. There was no point in visiting, or apologizing to them.

But then, she mused a little while later, as she went to the graveyard, there was no point in apologizing to the earth where a corpse had been interred, years ago, a corpse that would long since have returned to its basic elements. But she still paused at the marker where her mother had been laid to her rest when she was not that much older than Negi, offered her apologies and farewells.

And she still slowly walked to a much more primitive marker in a part of the graveyard no one ever visited, and, after a moment of contemplation, tried to express how sorry she was.

It wasn't enough. It could never be enough.

But it was all that she had.

Once she was done, she walked away from the town, up to the bus stop, and looked down over the town where she'd grown up for what she felt might be the last time. "Goodbye," she said, just a minute before the bus trundled up. And then she boarded it to begin the series of transfers that would eventually take her to Heathrow airport.

* * *

Roughly seven hours later on the far side of the world, Asuna woke up in bed beside Negi, with him curled up against her. She spent a few moments just lying there, glorying in this contact, willing the world to go away for a while. But she knew that this wish wouldn't come true. And even though she'd called in sick on her paper route last night - and despite the twinge of conscience that she always felt for lying - she couldn't stay in bed forever.

So she kissed still-sleeping Negi and smoothly rolled up and over him before dropping down to the floor. She paused to take in the sight of Arika curled up between Konoka and Setsuna. It was good to see them getting along again. she knew that her mother had had some sort of issue with Konoka, before, but their current situation suggested it had been overcome without Asuna ever learning much about it. That was good. It was actually good to see all, or at least a lot, of her friends and companions scattered around the room, sleeping off their exertions of the night before.

They almost looked innocent.

Okay, nobody could possibly mistake the silly grin on Hakase's face as she lay across Mana's stomach for innocent, but ... well, anyway. Asuna headed into the bathroom to brush her teeth.

She found then that she wasn't the only one up this early. Chisame paused as she brushed her teeth to favor her with a slightly less-hostile-than-usual glance from behind her glasses.

"Good morning," Asuna said, since it was the polite thing to do.

Chisame grunted as she brushed her teeth.

"I'm surprised that you're up this early," Asuna continued.

"I keep hacker hours," Chisame replied, taking the brush out of her mouth for a moment.

"Hm. I suppose that makes sense," agreed Asuna, who had no idea what hacker hours were or why someone would keep them. "Um ... I really hope you're not using Konoka's toothbrush -"

"Brought my own when I came over here," Chisame said, then picked up her glass of water, swished a mouthful around in her mouth, before spitting it out in the sink.

"That's very impressive," Asuna said, genuinely impressed. "I probably wouldn't have thought to do that."

Chisame looked like she was about to say something, but all that came out was the word, "Yeah."

Asuna reached over to pick up the toothbrush clearly marked with the katakana of her own name, ran water over it and put some toothpaste on it, all the while watching Chisame checking out her zits in the mirror. "Okay," she said at last. "There's something I've got to ask you."

Chisame braced herself against the counter. "So ask."

"What's the deal with your glasses?"

That wasn't the question that Chisame had been anticipating. "... what?"

"I know you can see perfectly well without them, probably as well as I can," Asuna continued. "So why do you wear glasses? You didn't need them last night when you were -"

"I -!" Chisame shouted, then moderated her tone with difficulty. "- remember. What I did. Last night. Thank you."

"So ... what's with the glasses?"

Chisame sighed. "My mother and ... well, the person I thought of as my father, they both had prescription lenses. So when I was about six, my mother told me that I had to get glasses. I didn't realize it, but I guess she was trying to keep up the illusion that I was his kid. Not that he would have cared one way or the other but .. keeping up appearances, you know."

"Mm," said Asuna, nodding sagely. "I see. That makes sense. It's sort of strange, isn't it. We've been in the same class for almost three years, and this is probably the longest conversation that we've ever had." She started to raise the toothbrush to her mouth.

"That's not strange at all," Chisame said, after glaring for a moment. "It makes perfect sense, actually, because I don't like you and you don't like me."

The toothbrush stopped outside of Asuna's open mouth. "What?" she asked. "What gives you the idea that I don't like you? I got news for you, girl, I don't do things like that with people I don't like!"

"You do them with Ayaka," Chisame noted.

"That's, that's a different thing. Look, Chisame-san, I admit that I don't know you all that well -"

"Which didn't stop you from smashing my glasses to keep me from reading Chao's family tree," Chisame muttered.

"Is that what this is all about?" Asuna asked, and then shook her head. "No, of course not. This is about Negi. You're jealous, that's all, and so you inject that onto me."

"The word is project, and, and so what if I am?"

"Well, fine, be jealous. He won't like it, by the way," she added warningly. "And, I'm sorry if it makes you feel bad, but I don't have any plans to become jealous of you. I'm not crazy about this harem idea our mom's pushing on him, but I really do like watching him with other girls. It's hot. That's what I think, anyway." Asuna finally got the toothbrush into her mouth and started brushing.

"Well, hurray for you," Chisame said, a vast amount of hurt in her tone. "I'm glad that your heart has a lot of room, Kagurazaka. I really am. Because it's going to need a lot of room, if he keeps going like he has been. And I even get why you feel that way. I bet it is immensely flattering to realize that no matter who he loves, or how he loves them, you're always going to have first place in his heart, after your mother, or even possibly before that. I bet it feels wonderful.

"But I will never know that feeling. What I have instead, the roaring certainty that one day he's going to realize that I'm not worth all the trouble that I cause him, really really sucks. If you want to call that jealousy, then I guess I'm guilty. And I don't have a big heart, either. Mine is small, and it's petty. But it's my heart, and it's the one that breaks every time I think of him leaving me behind."

Chisame breathed heavily for a moment, before continuing, in a somewhat icier tone. "There's just one good thing about the mess that we're in, Kagurazaka. I think it's kind of funny that you fell in love with the little boy you want to protect, and I fell in love with the man I saw peeking out from behind that smile of his. Because as time goes by, he's going to become less and less of what you fell in love with, and more and more what I did. But even that's a pettiness, because what's never going to change is the way he feels about you. And that means that one of these days, you're going to hurt him."

She tossed the remnants of her water in the sink and walked away.

Asuna kept brushing her teeth, and rinsed out her mouth. She avoided looking in the mirror as she did so. wasn't sure what she'd see there, when she looked at her face.

* * *

Nekane found it rather amusing to be watching _Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets_ as one of the in-flight movies on her trip. Most of her colleagues basically despised those books and the surrounding fandom. It had been explained to her that they portrayed magi (or wizards, to use the term the books used) as bumpkins unaware of the modern world in which they lived. Considering the number of mages every year who retreated to Mundus Magica in hopes of escaping that very modernity, Nekane frankly thought that portrayal might be a bit more accurate than anyone wanted to admit.

For her part, she rather liked the books. She'd tried to get Negi to read them, thinking he might view their protagonist as someone in much the same position as himself, but he'd apologetically claimed that he didn't really have time to be reading for pleasure. Too much studying to be done, if one wanted to be a Magister Magi.

Her smile faded as she watched the antics of Harry, Ron and Hermione. Negi hadn't had friends like that growing up. He'd had Anya, but she was more of a self-appointed caretaker. Well, not self-appointed, Nekane amended. She herself had asked the little girl to look after Negi, while she was recuperating from her injuries. Anya had just taken the request far more seriously than Nekane had expected from her. But that was a failure on Nekane's fault, for not realizing how badly damaged Anya had been by the night all sense left their lives.

No real friends, no entertainment, just endless work and study, all in the hope of expiating a sin that wasn't even his. What kind of childhood had she given him?

Well, now, at least, there would be an accounting. She would at last stand before Arika, and those calm, mismatched eyes would search her, and in an instant, the Queen of Calamity would know her for the one who had betrayed both her and Nagi.

It had been easy. They had told only their closest allies about their plans to travel to America, using separate planes for security purposes and having their son sent along later. They employed secure magical communications to that end. But they had neglected to even consider the possibility that someone might be listening in on their own end. Someone who could casually mention what they were planning on a phone line that was bound to be tapped.

It hadn't worked out the way that she'd expected. They'd captured Arika, but their attack on Nagi had failed - and they'd left clues behind that sent him to Istanbul, where he'd died or, at least, had been reported slain. That, in particular, had never been Nekane's intention. She had just wanted them captured for a little while, before their inevitable escape, so that she could have a little more time with Negi.

Well, she'd gotten that. She'd spent her whole life trying to be both a mother and father to the boy, suffered horrific injuries defending him, and ultimately let him walk his own path in the world, no matter how lonely it made her feel. Surely that counted for something. Surely it expiated her sin.

Unfortunately, whatever her efforts did in the eyes of the Almighty, she suspected that Arika wouldn't see it that way. And the Queen of Calamity, who'd overthrown her own father in a coup d'etat, was not known for her mercy or compassion. Nor would she understand her reasons.

The credits were rolling. Nekane removed her headset and closed her eyes in hopes of getting some sleep. She suspected that she'd need all the energy she could muster for today's confrontation. But sleep wouldn't come.

It just wouldn't come.

* * *

At this moment, Arika could only have been happier if Nagi was there. She hadn't been there for so many of her children's firsts - their first steps, their first words. But now that she was here, she would be present for many of their firsts. She had been some of their firsts, in fact. But not this one. She supposed that she could have penetrated Asuna's ass while her own accepted Negi's cock, but as she'd said, a maid's first dance - of any sort - should be special.

So instead, she rested beneath her daughter's crouching form as her son gently slid into her rear entrance, kissing and whispering to the girl as her face tensed up from the unexpected pressures. She reached down to brush fingers against Asuna's clitoris, not trying to bring her to orgasm, just keeping her on the boil so that Negi's novice effforts could do so. Again, she could have allowed Asuna to mount a strap-on that Ayaka had so courteously provided, but again, a maid's first double penetration should come from two men.

Such a pity that Kotaro had refused the invitation.

"Doesn't it feel good, Asuna?" she murmured. "Now you see why I put so much effort into training your ass' resistance. I wanted you to feel this good, too. Tell me how good it feels."

"So ... good ..." Asuna gasped.

But while it was very good, this experience was firmly convincing her that doggy-style was not for her. Despite the deeper penetration she received, she wanted to be able to hold her part- Negi in her arms, to kiss his face as it lay above or below her own. She couldn't manage that with him behind her. She was going to have to find out if it was possible to do anal from another position, one that allowed her to face him, if she ever wanted to do this with another man.

With Negi, she meant. She didn't want any other man.

She didn't.

To distract herself from such thoughts, she lifted her face up from kissing Arika to look around at the rest of the room. Initially, they'd started out watching the demonstration of anal sex that Arika had given, but, like the bad little girls that they were, almost all of them had moved on to other things. Only Satomi was still watching, and it was anyone's guess whether or not she was still seeing anything as Yuna sat behind her, groping and squeezing at her breasts with one hand while the other moved freely in the pubic area, all the while whispering about things that she'd done into Hakase's attentive ear.

Having heard some of those stories herself, Asuna believed that the words accounted for at least half of the look of hapless ecstasy on Satomi's face.

Over by the kitchenette, Kaede was being eaten out by Konoka and Setsuna simultaneously. In accepting the horrific secrets of Konoka's past, Setsuna had finally moved past her insecurity and jealousy, accepting that she was the only one in Konoka's heart. Thus, Konoka's occasional dalliances with other people didn't really matter, as long as she knew about them. At least, that was how Setsuna had explained it to Asuna the other day, as she received the benefits of this new understanding, just as Kaede was receiving them now.

It was pretty much how she herself felt about Negi and his relationships with other people, just as Chisame had described it earlier. However, that made Asuna a bit nervous. What did it say about her notions, if Konoka - sweet, loveable, manipulative as all get out Konoka - was latching onto them to justify herself?

But she decided not to worry about that. Kaede certainly didn't seem worried about anything at the moment; her eyes, usually open just to slits, were fully closed at the moment as her back pressed against the wall, frequently slamming against it as the two tongues entwined gently caressed her. Clearly, Setsuna still had it, and Konoka had begun to cultivate it, as well.

Not far from them, Ayaka was pounding the strap-on that she'd offered to Arika into Mana's receptive - wait, no, Mana was pounding into ... no, it was the first way around after all ... or was it? Asuna honestly couldn't tell who was doing what to whom. Ah, now matters became clearer. The sex toy being employed wasn't a strap-on, it was the double-headed dildo that Satomi, of all people, had brought with her.

Regardless, the furious passion that the fair-haired and dark-skinned coupling demonstrated was awesome to behold as they grappled together. Of course, the effect was somewhat spoiled for Asuna by the fact that she knew that Mana was holding back quite a bit, when compared with what she'd done with Negi a few days ago. On the other hand, that just made Asuna wonder what it would be like to be with Mana when she wasn't holding back.

Nor was she the only one who thought so. "Mmm," Arika said, her gaze following Asuna's. "Yes, to be with her and her father at once, neither of them holding anything back ... what a wonderful thought."

Asuna was pretty sure you weren't supposed to sweatdrop while being sodomized, but she managed nonetheless. "I wasn't ... really thinking ... in that ... direction -" she gasped out.

"Why not? He's actually pretty good in bed," said a voice from behind Asuna.

Asuna sighed as she twisted her neck, just a little bit painfully, to look up behind her. Sure enough, there was Chisame, crouching beside the furiously humping Negi, holding him tightly, kissing and caressing him, just like Asuna wanted to be doing. And from the look on her face, she clearly guessed that was the case.

"I am definitely your partisan, dear," Arika murmured into her ear. "But I think that one is going to be a strong rival." For being 'her partisan', Asuna thought she sure sounded amused by it all.

Before Asuna could do anything about this, though, the phone began to ring, making everyone pause what they were doing. The phone continued to ring.

"Could someone please get that?" Negi and Asuna asked weakly, in more or less perfect stereo.

That left exactly one permanent resident of the dormitory to answer the phone. With a sigh, Konoka disengaged from her attentions to Kaede's person and strolled over to pick up the phone. "Moshi moshi," she said cheerfully, as though she hadn't just been pulled away from some really good sex. Then she blinked. "Nekane-san? I'm doing quite well, thank you. Yes, that was a disturbing few weeks, and I'm glad that they're over now. At the airport, you say? Which airport? Narita, you say."

Negi had frozen in place as soon as he'd heard his cousin's name. When the word airport was mentioned, he rapidly pulled out of Asuna with an audible pop and scampered across the room with a horrified expression on his face.

"Ah, here's Negi-kun. I think he wants to speak to you," Konoka continued to say airily into the phone as Negi gestured frantically for her to give it to him. "Would you like to talk to him? You would? Oh, all right then. It's always so nice to talk to you, too. Thank you. Over to Negi-kun." She finally handed over the phone, and then promptly dropped down to begin giving oral pleasure to Negi, having gotten him where she wanted him. (The flavor of Asuna's ass didn't bother her at all, thanks to the douche Arika had insisted that her daughter take before the sex had begun.)

"Nekane-neesan, I am so so sorry! Things have been so hectic here, I completely forgot that you were arriving today! Please, please forgive - oh. Well, all right. But I really am sorry. Um, yes, to get here, you need to take the -"

Before he could describe the train she needed to take, Ayaka quietly whipped out her own cell phone from the pile of clothes she'd discarded yesterday, phoned her family's limo company and told them where to go and who to pick up.

"Err," said Negi. "Um, actually, neesan, uh, Aya- Yukihiro-san is sending around a car to pick you up at the airport. Yes, it is very nice of her. It should be there in about -" Ayaka held up five fingers. "- five minutes or so, and - really? It's already there?" Ayaka smiled beatifically. "Oh. Well, um, I guess it'll bring you right to the dormitory. Uh, yes, we're on the sixth floor, room six four three, the one with my name on the door. Yes, I look forward to seeing you too. I really am sorry. See you then." He hung up and promptly ejaculated in Konoka's mouth.

"Mmmm," Konoka said, while Negi collapsed. "Does this mean we have to stop?" she asked after a moment.

"I shouldn't think so," Ayaka said. "Nekane-san is a passionate and gentle lover. I hope she doesn't mind the revelation that we're related."

"Oh, I think she won't mind too much," Arika noted with an enigmatic smile.

Negi quietly lay on the floor, watching the dream of being a proper English gentleman fly off on angel wings.

* * *

It was nice of Ayaka-san to send this car for her. Nekane hoped that she'd be able to thank the girl. What with this and that, however, she probably wouldn't. By this and that, of course, she meant her oncoming confrontation with Arika. Really, all that this car meant was that the confrontation would happen even sooner than it otherwise would have.

But there was no point in trying to avoid it. This was something that had been building for years, and she would no longer try to hide from what she'd done. From anything that she'd done.

The car delivered her to the dormitory's doors. She got out, the driver produced her small suitcase from its boot and handed it to her, then got back into the car and drove away before she could offer so much as a word of thanks. Well, it was probably just a job to that person, anyway. Nothing to get excited about.

So she walked into the building and climbed the stairs. It was a bit of a strain, particularly given her legs, but she supposed that it was a bit much to expect there to be an elevator in a country like Japan. Samurai ethic, and all that. Actually, by the time she got up to the sixth floor, Nekane found herself in a fair amount of pain. She rested for a moment, patting her forehead with a handkerchief, before once more hefting the bag and walking over to the door marked with Negi's name.

She held up a hand to knock. But the hand disobeyed its owner's will, holding in place for a moment. There is no point in putting this off, Nekane told herself sternly, and forced the hand to rap on the door.

A moment later, the door swung open, and Nekane was greeted by the sight of the Queen of Calamity in a housecoat and slippers. Her calm, mismatched eyes examined her searchingly.

Nekane took a deep breath. "Lady Arika, I'm pleased to find you well," she started to say. It was the truth. She'd never hated the woman or wanted her to come to any harm.

"Indeed," Arika said. "Please, come in."

Obviously, she wanted to annihilate her in private. Well, she'd a right to do so. Nekane picked up her bag and walked through the doorway into the dimly lit short hallway beyond it. Arika shut the doorway, and Nekane braced herself for the assault to come.

She hadn't been bracing herself to be shoved against the door and kissed forcefully. That had been nowhere among the expected outcomes of this encounter. Nekane tried to adjust to this strange turn of events as Arika's tongue pushed in past her teeth and caressed her own tongue. She also detected Arika pulling off the housecoat to reveal that she wore nothing at all beneath it, and grabbing both of Nekane's hands by the wrists to pull them up to rest their palms on her firm breasts.

"I've wanted this for almost eleven years," Arika said, as she pulled back from the kiss, leaving a trail of saliva glistening in the air between them. "If it hadn't been for your condition when we met, Nagi and I would certainly have invited you into our bed then. You were such a beautiful child, Nekane. But you've grown more beautiful since."

"What?" Nekane said, trying to put all of her bewilderment into that one word. Was this some sort of strange game? Was the Queen trying to pretend that she didn't know what Nekane had done?

"Don't play the coy innocent, dear, it doesn't suit either of us," Arika said warningly. "Nagi knew about your crush on him. You were childishly obvious. He found it amusing, though not as much as I did. Did you know that he might be your father then?"

Nekane stammered for a moment. "No," she finally said. "I didn't read mother's journal until after -" _I betrayed you,_ she thought, but stopped herself from saying the words aloud.

"But even when you knew, it did nothing to change the attraction, did it?" Arika pressed, both with her words, and up against Nekane with her hips.

"No," Nekane whispered. "He was still my superhero, before anything else. I am so, so sorry -"

"Tsh. The heart and the body want what they want, whatever the mind might decree," Arika said warmly, following it up with another, briefer kiss. "As I said, we would have welcomed you in our bed, beautiful child. Nagi is not here ... but I will try to make up for the lack." And with that she began kissing down the front of Nekane's dress, lifting its hem as she went down.

"Wait, no, wait, what about Negi?" Nekane gasped out.

"He's being attended to," Arika said absently as she got the hemline above the girl's hose. This exposed the horrific scars just above her knees, and she pressed kisses on them, in tribute to the wounds the girl had taken defending her son. "And enjoying the attention, I'm sure."

"No, what I mean - wait, do you mean he knows about all of this?" Nekane asked, mind once more achieving a certain clarity.

"Of course," Arika said as the other woman's panties were finally exposed to her view. A pair of fingers slid up each of her hips through the leg openings and pulled them taut, until the cotton tore asunder. "I claimed his innocence a while ago, and he's been with many women since then."

A look of horror crossed Nekane's face at those words, unseen by the woman who was starting to kiss her abdomen. "You ... and Negi ..." she said faintly.

"Why would I not be attracted to the combination of myself and Nagi?" Arika asked. "I am attracted to all of his children. I am certainly attracted to you. Why would I not be attracted to Negi?" And with that, she dove in towards Nekane's core, licking and caressing intently.

Pleasure battled revulsion in Nekane's brain, and pleasure, as always, had the upper hand. Perhaps it would have been better to take Negi away from this woman permanently, but would she ever have known this if she had? Once again, Nekane felt herself losing to the sensation, just as she had after Ayaka had tricked her in the baths. But to an even greater degree; Arika was the best lover she'd ever known in her limited experience.

Brought to a gasping orgasm in just a few minutes, all Nekane could do was sigh as Arika rose up and kissed her, somewhat more gently than before. "You taste divine," she said. "Come now, get undressed. You won't need those clothes where you're going."

Hesitantly, wanting to fight against the suggestion, but unable to resist, Nekane undid the hooks at the back of her dress, and let it fall to the floor around her feet. Her pantiest were already shredded, and her bra came off just as easily. "Leave the stockings," Arika advised her. "They add some mystery, I think."

Tightly but tenderly, Arika took Nekane by the hand and led her down the hall and into the dormitory room itself. The younger woman gasped as she witnessed what was going on there.

Her eyes first lit on Ayaka, who was crouching on the room's table with her arms wrapped around the arms of another girl, the red-haired girl whom Nekane thought was named Chisame, pinning them back so that the orange-haired girl whom Nekane definitely recognized as Negi's roommate Asuna, was able to rub up against her. They were all three of them naked as the day they were born. Ayaka seemed more amused than anything else, while Asuna looked determined and Chisame was clearly seething.

"Well, now that I have you where I want you," Asuna was saying, "I think we should pick up that conversation we were having earlier. The one where you spewed out a bunch of bullshit."

Chisame grunted. "Are you going to critique my arguments or fuck me?" she snapped.

"I can do both, because I am clever," Asuna said blandly as she reached down to finger the other girl's vagina. The comment drew a snort from Ayaka which Asuna answered with a glare, but for the most part she kept her eyes on Chisame. "I can't say much about most of what you said, but one thing really pissed me off. You were whining about how you're scared that Negi's eventually going to realize that you're not worth it, but just a few seconds later you told me that how he feels about me isn't gonna change. They can't both be true, y'know?"

"Yes, they -" Chisame started to say, then broke off as Asuna's fingers drove deep within her.

"Nuh-uh. I'm not that blessed, and you're not that much of a roaring bitch. God, no wonder Chachamaru likes you so much, you're just like Eva, you know that? You're both wrapped up in this rotten self-image of yourself as someone no one could ever or should ever care about or like. She's a nine hundred year old vampire, what's your excuse?"

"That's -"

"People like you, Chisame. I like you. She likes you." Ayaka nodded, then kissed Chisame's cheek gently. "And lots of other people like you too. And Negi loves you, and if he's never going to stop loving me, then we've got no chance of getting him to stop loving you either. And regardless, you're not going to push me away by being a jerk. Tougher people than you have tried. Now let's have some fun, okay?" And with that, she dropped down to begin licking at the garden her fingers had just excavated.

"Just a warning, sister," Ayaka said as she started to play with Chisame's breasts. "She's not kidding about any of that."

_Sister?_ Nekane thought bemusedly. She hadn't known that Ayaka had a sister, and didn't the other girl have a different family name? But before she could consider this more deeply, her attention was drawn to the bunkbed against one of the walls of the room. Negi was there, with a dark-haired girl she didn't recognize bouncing up and down on his hips, looking extremely happy, while Konoka rubbed up against her from behind.

"Ne, cousin Yuna-chan, I get to go next, right?" Konoka asked in a rather plaintive voice.

"Fine by me," Yuna replied. "Of course, Negi-kun might have other ideas, huh, Negi-kun?"

"I'm fine," Negi replied with a sigh. "Konoka deserves her turn."

"Ah, but I think someone with a better claim is here," Arika opined as she stood just behind Nekane, looking down at them.

Negi turned his head towards them, and his face froze as he saw his cousin standing there in nothing more than her hose and a look of shock. "Neesan," he gulped.

Yuna turned to look as well, taking in Nekane at a glance, and smiling broadly as she did so. "Nice," she said as her hip thrusts slowed.

Nekane wasn't sure what disturbed her more, the girl leering at her or the look of abject terror on Negi's face. She never ever wanted him to look at her like that, so she swallowed, and tried to speak in a calm, level tone. "Negi," she said. "Is this what was distracting you so that you forgot that I was com- about to arrive?" She corrected herself mid-sentence, to eliminate the double entendre.

"Y-yes," Negi stammered as he pulled away from Yuna and Konoka, who moved back to give the cousins a moment alone. (They promptly fell into an embrace, kissing and rubbing up against each other.) "For, for a while now, I've been ... yes."

"Lady Arika, your mother, tells me that you've been doing this with a number of women," Nekane continued. She paused, then added, in a rush, "Including her."

Negi nodded, still looking fearful. "Also Asuna, Ayaka and Chisame."

"Ayaka is very good, isn't she?" Nekane said, simply to say something while she puzzled out why he'd emphasized those three girls. Wait, if Chisame and Ayaka were sisters, then -

"Chisame and Ayaka are the daughters of Nagi," Arika breathed into Nekane's ear. "Just as you are, I think. While Asuna is my daughter."

It was far, far too late to object that she might not be Nagi's daughter, that it might just be a trick of heredity that she resembled Ayaka. She had noted the similarities between herself and the other girl even as they were ... but hadn't commented on them. But she couldn't reply to that now. She had to keep her focus. If she didn't, she'd ... she drew in a deep breath. "Negi, is this what you like to do? Are you doing this because you want to do it?"

"I ... yes," Negi admitted. "I like how it feels. And I like to make the people I l-love feel good, and this, this seems to do that."

"I see," Nekane said calmly. Inside she was weeping at her failure. She'd tried so hard to raise him to be different from his father, to be a proper English gentleman instead of a wild Welsh wizard. And this was how it had all come out. Still, considering the circumstances under which she'd come to have the opportunity to raise him, perhaps her failure was simply the workings of karma.

Well, if she'd failed, she might as well fail completely. "Do you, do you want to do this sort of thing with, with me, Negi?" she asked.

"I ..." He trailed off. "I love you, neesan. If, if you want to feel good, then ..." And again.

She drew in a deep breath through her nostrils. "All right," she said, slowly dropping to her knees in front of him as he sat, legs dangling over the edge of the bottom bunk, his small manhood stiff between them. She stared at it, at him, for what felt like an eternity, before leaning forward to take it in her mouth.

Arika watched the loving between Negi and Nekane begin with satisfaction. She considered briefly joining in at Nekane's other end, but a girl's first time with one she loved so deeply should be private. She also considered joining in on the coupling between the eager Yuna and the somewhat frustrated-looking Konoka not far away, but decided that it was already too familiar.

A glance towards the bathroom door revealed quite exciting things going on between Setsuna, Mana and Kaede. The last-mentioned girl interested her quite a bit. It had been years since she'd had a ninja for a lover, since that trip to that strange parallel world. (She wondered whatever had happpened to Kushina and her husband. She hoped they were well.) But on reflection, there was someone else that she wanted ever more, someone who wasn't at the party.

So, after checking to make sure that Satomi was all right - the girl had collapsed of exhaustion some time before, and was sleeping in the top bunk - she headed back to the hallway and pulled on her housecoat again before heading out into the hallway. As she went through the doorway, her magically enhanced ears heard the guttural cry which suggested that Negi and Nekane had moved on to cunnilingus or possibly intercourse, as well as Nekane's sobs of pleasure.

Well, her sobs, anyway.

Pleased with herself, Arika strolled down the hallway towards Haruna's room. Ever since their conversation yesterday, part of her had been utterly enthralled with the idea of taking the artist as a lover, and introducing her to Negi's harem. Not only was she sure to be a wonderful and imaginative partner, she would serve as a lever towards adding her friends Nodoka and Yue to it as well.

Haruna's resistance to the notion didn't even give her a moment's concern. There had never been anyone that she couldn't seduce, given the opportunity.

She arrived at the door to Haruna's room, but before she could knock, the door beside it opened up and Chizuru walked out, wearing a robe and slippers much like Arika's own. The girl blinked in surprise at the sight of Arika. "Oh. Good afternoon," she said, without much warmth in her tone.

"Good day," Arika replied, ignoring the tone. "How is your hand?"

Reflexively, Chizuru looked down at the cast before answering. "It still hurts, from time to time, but I imagine that means that the bones are knitting back together." She coughed, then looked up, but not at Arika directly. "Since Ayaka didn't come back to our room last night, I assume that she was with you and Negi. Is she well?"

"Very well," Arika confirmed. "You realize that you are also welcome to -"

"I decline to do so," Chizuru interrupted firmly. "What you are doing is wrong." Her voice was quiet, but incredibly firm.

Arika blinked. "I see. I won't thank you for that unsolicited opinion, but I suppose you've a right to it. Tell me, please, is it right for a fifteen year old woman to seduce a twelve year old girl?" There was just a bit of an edge in her tone.

To her surprise, Chizuru didn't visibly react to the salvo. "No, it is not," she admitted. "In retrospect, I should have waited until she was more mature. Nor is that the only contemptible thing that I've done. But whatever I've done does not change the fact that what you are doing is wrong."

Now Arika felt herself getting a bit angry. "Indeed. Who says so?"

"I do. I say so. I may not be able to stop you personally, and I might not be in any position to get other people to do it, but I can choose my own actions, and I choose not to be involved in your activities. Because what you are doing is wrong."

"You keep repeating that. It does not become more charming with repetition," Arika snapped. "Why is it wrong?"

"Why is it right?" Chizuru replied automatically.

Arika blinked. "How can something that brings happiness to so many be wrong?" she asked.

"Many things bring momentary happiness but subsequent misery," Chizuru answered smoothly. Her face had remained calm all this while, and her tone betrayed no stress whatsoever. "Should any of Negi's romantic partners find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy, that would be an example of a lasting misery."

"Children are always a delight," Arika objected.

"It's convenient for you, then, that someone else raised yours."

Arika actually found herself taking a step back in response to that salvo. "How dare you?" she hissed. "How dare you imply that the greatest regret of my life is somehow convenient?"

"I was an unwanted child," Chizuru snapped in response, her face showing mild anger for the first time in the conversation. "Rest assured, my mother didn't find the task of raising me, without any help from my bastard of a father, to be the delight you seem think she would. You act as though you can slide through life without any consequence -"

"That is not true!" Arika protested.

"- and the lesson you teach to those around you is that they should do whatever pleases them, because it will please them. I consider that to be a contemptible philosophy ... and I don't like the consequences it is causing for people I love and respect," she added, looking past Arika's shoulder.

Arika turned to see that Negi was standing just a little bit behind them, stark naked. "Negi!" she said. "Why in the world are you wandering the halls with no clothes on!"

"Clothes are hard," Negi replied cheerfully ... and then his features began to melt. Before either Arika or Chizuru could react, the slime that had taken Negi's form expanded to cover them both, wrapping them in its folds and bearing them away.

* * *

_Not again,_ was Chizuru's first thought as she regained consciousness strapped to a wall, unable to move her legs or arms. She could, however, turn her head to see that Arika was in the same position to her left, and that there was a space to her right with straps just like those on her limbs.

Before her, there was a circular room with an elaborate coat of arms on the floor that she didn't recognize. Some distance away, there was a door leading into what looked like an elevator shaft, without an elevator car within it. On the opposite side of the room from them was a bank of monitors with a large chair facing them.

With predictability, the chair swivelled around to face them, revealing the face that Chizuru recognized as the retired master of the Yukihiro Financial Group - although until this moment, she had never seen him without his glasses, or realized that his eyes were two different colors. There was a small girl with odd green skin on his lap, whom he was petting like a cat, to her obvious enjoyment.

"Greetings," he said cloyingly.

"That would have been far more dramatic if I hadn't already guessed it was you," Arika said wearily.

The man paid her no heed, instead speaking to the small girl. "Well done, Purin. It was a good idea to release you and your sisters. You have given excellent service."

The girl smiled in response.

"I suppose that I should introduce you. It's the polite thing to do," Arika continued. "Chizuru-san, this is ... well, a person who believes himself to be my father, Alladia Autarkia -"

"I am him," the man said, anger clear in his tone as his gaze snapped up to take them both in. "You do not face any homonculous this time, my dear."

"So you say."

"So I do. And in any event, your companion already knows me, though I was wearing a different face when we met," the man sneered. He moved the slime to the armrest of the chair before standing - and his appearance shifted, becoming that of the current master of the Yukihiro Financial Group. "I preferred to wear this face while I was wandering the halls of my new home, some eighteen years ago. One night while doing so, I met a rather precious young woman who immediately attracted my -"

"You? It was you who raped my mother, and not the real Yukihiro-san?" Chizuru asked, feeling more shocked than she ever had before this.

"Oh, please. Rape is simply the word used by an inferior to describe their refusal to accept the attentions of a superior," he said dismissively, sembling into his true form. "In any event, yes, I am your father, too. I am surprised that the two of you have not realized your similiarities to one another. Admittedly, the most singular trait of the Entheofushia line didn't breed true in your case, second daughter, but still, your older sister is normally more perceptive."

Arika looked startled, but didn't rise to the bait.

"In any event, the third shall be joining us shortly. Then you will all be togther. Maiden, mother and crone, gathered to witness my union with one who is all of the above," Alladia said happily. "I will go now to make preparations for that blessed event. Keep a good eye on them, dear Purin!" And with that he strolled to the elevator doors, which swung open to admit him and swung closed behind him as he dropped down the shaft.

"Well. It's a small world, after all," said Chizuru after a moment.

"I am sorry, Chizuru-san," Arika said. "He has always been something of a monster, I'm afraid."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that he's a monster," she replied absently. "Just someone who acts as though he should do whatever pleases him, because it pleases him."

Arika looked at her for a moment, then looked away. "I'm not talking to you anymore."

"How very sisterly we are."

* * *

Back in Negi's seraglio, Setsuna had just experienced her first orgasm at the hands and tongue of Mana, and was collapsed on the toilet seat. "That was amazing," she rasped. "Why, why didn't we ever do this before?"

"You couldn't afford me," Mana said simply. It was a convenient lie. The truth was that she'd have cheerfully knocked boots with the sexy little swordswoman at any time during their acquaintance, but up until recently, she'd felt Setsuna might as well have had a sheathed sword up her ass. Nothing good would have come from hitting on her. She was pleased that this was no longer the case.

"Very well, then 'tis my turn," said Kaede as she cuddled up to Mana on the bathroom floor.

"You?" Mana sniffed. "Please. I think we settled the issue of which of us is more skillful when you had to be carried away from Negi and I walked."

"Ah, but this one did not employ all my capacities in my encounter with Negi-dono, for they would have surely been wasted," Kaede noted. "For example -" And with a faint pulse of her will, three duplicates of her, each as naked as she was, appeared around Mana.

Mana affected to yawn, though in truth this was not without interest. "I've been group-groped by professionals, you know," she said, as each of the duplicates reached out to caress some part of her epidermis, each of them just as gentle and yet firm as Kaede could be.

"Ah, but this one has just begun," the original Kaede said, with her shadow clones echoing just a bit behind her. They raised their hands before their breasts and made a series of _kuji kiri_ before them before proclaiming, "Futanari no jutsu!"

Now Mana showed genuine surprise, but before she could say or do anything, she was grappled and firmly penetrated - vaginally, anally, and orally - by three of the Kaedes, who each began pumping into her, full, firm breasts shaking as they did so. All Mana could do was let out grunts of pleasure, mixed with perhaps just a bit of anger at being taken in this way.

"I've never seen anything like that," Setsuna proclaimed weakly to the remaining Kaede.

"Nor shall you long be seeing it now," the Kaede replied as she firmly grabbed hold of Setsuna's shoulders and brought her face down to her own stiff illusory phallus. "There are far more intriguing things to command your attention than a boring, frigid lover being warmed up."

Mana's next grunt sounded like a protest, but Setsuna was a bit distracted by what she was doing to pay attention. She felt a bit torn about it. Aside from Negi and her father, she really didn't have any interest in men, and yet here she was performing oral sex on what was clearly a penis. Did the fact that it was illusory and attached to a woman make this somehow lesbian? It was somewhat troubling to think about ...

Back in the main room, Negi was pounding back and forth between Nekane's legs as she lay on her back on the bottom bunk, while Ayaka and Chisame lay beside her suckling at her breasts. Nekane's face still looked ashen, which made Negi feel a bit uncomfortable about all this. He wanted to make her feel good, but despite what his big sister said, she seemed to be unhappy about all of this. Should he stop? surely she'd tell him if she wanted him to stop.

Over on the table, Asuna was lying on top of Konoka, kissing her furiously while Yuua fingered them both from behind.

"We should have been doing this much more than just that one time," Konoka said deliriously.

"No argument from me," Asuna agreed between gasps.

Yuna rolled her eyes at all this lovey-dovey talk. They were as bad as - she broke off in mid-thought, and started to consider the possibility of shoving more than just her fingers into their cunts. (Unlike most of Negi's comely comrades, she was developing a real liking for Arika's blunt terminology.)

But she was distracted by this when Negi suddenly gasped, "I think, I'm about, to -"

"Pull out, that way we all get a taste," Chisame suggested.

"Yes, pull out," Nekane said somewhat more forcefully.

"I -"

* * *

"And I return," said Alladia as he bounded up the shaft and through the doors that opened for him. He was smiling an extremely unpleasant smile.

"I'll alert the media," said Arika.

"Ah, daughter. This is all thanks to you, really. If not for your attack on my homonculous and his lair, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to study the geomancy of this area so closely as I have, once the local authorities called upon it during the clean-up of that affray. It has finally given me the key to the last thing that I needed for our ascension."

"What are you going to do?" Chizuru asked, frowning.

"Does the sheep ask the wolf what it's going to do, second daughter?" the mad king sneered. "But I am generous, and so shall demonstrate. There are a number of demiplanes scattered around this region, tiny realms sealed off from the rest of the universe. Often the laws of reality are slightly bent within them, so that time passes by much more swiftly within than without. A powerful magic, wouldn't you say? Difficult to set up, yet almost impossible to shatter ... at least not without one particular spell."

Arika's face had gone ashen. "Why would you do such a thing?"

"Because I can. And because it will greatly disrupt the geomancy of this region, and thus a certain barrier," he added with great satisfaction.

"No, wait, she will not thank you for this, this is her -"

"Prison," Alladia pronounced, interrupting Arika's outburst. "She will learn to thank me in time. And now my forces are prepared to capture my third daughter in the chaos that will ensue."

"Do not do this, I am begging you!" Arika cried.

Her father sighed rapturously. "It needed only this. And now, the spell." He lifted his voice and began to speak in Greek. "Bind your eyes mystic serpent," were the only words of the spell that Chizuru could understand in the torrent that followed, before she heeded Arika's shrieked cry to stop listening, as howling filled the air around them.

* * *

Evangeline, brooding in her resort, realized what was happening immediately, and had most of two subjective hours to prepare a response. Unfortunately, she wasted quite a bit of that hour shouting abuse at whoever was doing this. That still left most of the second for her to try to reinforce the resort's barriers to resist the spell. Given just a little more time, or some help, she probably would have succeeded.

But she was alone.

Three minutes after Alladia began to cast his spell, Evangeline's cottage ceased to exist. Her resort exploded forth from the container in its basement and burst through the building's walls as it expanded to its actual size, crushing much of the forest around the location of the cabin. The small sea at the base of resort also swept out to drown much of the area as well. Last but not least, two minutes after the spell finished, the bridge between the two towers of the resort complex, architecturally unfeasible in a less magically rich environment, collapsed to the ground below. Then, and only then, did silence reign over the remnants of the forested area.

Nor was this the only demiplane whose contents spilled out on the region of Mahora. Most were simply places of storage. Library Island contained far more books than even its awesome shelving could hold, and so the magicians had placed less frequently used volumes in places reserved for such rarely-used books. Now they all exploded forth, spewing those books out into the library proper as they broke down the walls and floors where they were hidden away.

All across Mahora, the demiplanes expanded, wrecking the buildings that contained them. Mayhem ensued, the lines of power around the city were altered by the changes to its structure, and a certain barrier, limiting the powers of a certain shinso vampire even further than the Infernun Scholasticus curse did, ceased to do so.

But there was one demiplane not hidden by the Mahora mage order. A great dark tower that exploded forth from the grounds of the academy, rearing up to challenge the World Tree itself, announcing that a new power had come into the world.

* * *

"What the heck was that?" almost everone in Negi's room chorused.

Negi didn't say it, but he was clearly thinking it as he froze in place and spewed out his climax into Nekane's vulva. Nekane didn't say it either; whatever she might have thought was known only to her as she lay on her back, staring up at absolutely nothing.

"Guys, I think we might have a situation, here," Yuna said as she looked out the window.

A flurry of dressing followed, awakening Satomi who blearily asked what was going on before she was hustled into her own clothes and dragged out along with the others. Negi paused to look at Nekane, who still hadn't moved. "You just stay here, neesan, we'll take care of this, all right?"

"Okay," she said faintly.

Once he was gone, she slowly curled up in a ball and started to weep.

* * *

Negi and his companions encountered Haruna, Nodoka, Yue and the Ariadne girls before they were even out of the dormitory, and the two groups quickly merged on Negi's instructions. Kotaro and Natsumi weren't far behind them. By the time they arrived at the plaza from which the tower had emerged, they'd also linked up with Ako and Akira, who'd been out walking in the town.

"Where's Makie-san?" Negi asked Ako.

"I don't know!" she replied, on the verge of panic. "I haven't seen her since yesterday, she didn't come home, do you think -"

"I'm sure she's fine!" Negi quickly replied, despite being nothing of the sort. Nor was Makie the only absentee about whom he was worried. where were his non-magical students? Where were the cheerleaders, where were the twins? Where was Chizuru?

Where was his mother?

And on top of all this, he was all too aware that most of his party was already worn out from their debauchery of the last few hours. He wasn't all that steady on his own feet. All this made him wonder if the best thing to do might be to just scout the area and then get out so that the adults could handle this situation, whatever it was.

"What do we do, Negi-sensei?" he heard Yue ask just as they arrived at the plaza, and he opened his mouth to express those very thoughts.

Just then panels on the sides of the tower opened up, and dozens of armored vehicles, some looking highly advanced, launched from it.

Negi drew in a deep breath. "Same thing we always do," he said. "We fight."

* * *

On the bottom step of the staircase that went around the pillar on which her resort rested, Evangeline Athanasia Katherine McDowell was pouting. She would not have appreciated being told that she was pouting, but that was the right word to describe the way that she was frowning and thinking dark thoughts about the injustice of the universe.

"Master?" said Chachamaru, standing a little to her side. "What will our response be to this situation?"

"I've got a great idea of what we should do!" Chachazero said enthusiastically.

"If you want to kill people," Evangeline said sourly, "go right ahead."

Privately, Chachazero thought this was rather unfair of the Master, since, despite the barrier's collapse, the deadly doll couldn't actually do anything. The curse sealing the Master's powers was still in effect. If it were night, and the moon was full, it would have been a different story. But it was still day, and the moon was weeks from fullness.

"Master - would it be permissible if I were to -"

"You want to go help the boya, don't you?" Evangeline asked, not turning to look at her companion. Her senses were keen enough to hear Chachamaru nodding. "Why do you love him?" she asked.

Chachamaru took a moment, and then answered. "Because he reminds me of the parts of you that I love, as well as respect."

Evangeline's eyes closed. At any other time, she'd have yelled at her servant for that implication, but it seemed like she just couldn't muster the indignation. "Fine. Go."

"Thank you, Master." Her rockets flared and she took off, flying in the direction of the tower that shared domination of the horizon with the world tree.

Evangeline's eyes stayed closed for a few more moments, before she heard a footstep nearby. She opened them and became wary once more. There was something familiar about the blonde woman in the disheveled dress who was approaching her, but she couldn't quite - and then she did place her. "Nekane Springfield," she said.

"You are Evangeline ... aren't you?" she asked, her voice as unsteady as her tread. "Negi told me about ... please, you have to help him."

"I've sent the best part of me to do just that," Evangeline replied. "I don't have to do anything more."

"I kind of object to that description," Chachazero noted, but no one was paying attention.

"No, no, I know, I heard stories about you, you're the Mage of the Evil Sound, you can do things -"

"Right now, I'm a moderately powerful vampire who doesn't have to hide in the darkness and isn't bothered by holy symbols, and that's about it," Evangeline snapped. "Even if I wanted to help him, which I don't, I couldn't do a blessed thing -"

"Please!" Nekane cried out. "You have to save my son!"

Evangeline snorted. "Am I supposed to care that you raised him because his mother got kidnapped and -"

"No! I bore him!" Nekane shrieked.

Few things in this world could truly surprise Evangeline. This managed it. All she could do for a second was stare at the English woman with an open mouth, before she finally hissed, "What?"

"I, I was young, a-and foolish, and I wanted to show my father how grown-up I was, and when Nagi came back to tell us he was going to be a father, I decided that this would be a good way to do it, and so I crept into his room, and, and I didn't know he'd slept with my mother, I didn't know he might be my, my, and I didn't know, and then I was pregnant, and he'd left, and I couldn't tell anyone who the father was, and they came back together, and she was so so much more perfect than I was, and I knew he'd never leave her for me ..."

She drew in a shuddering breath before continuing, slightly more calmly. "Our babies were born in the same week, hers just a few days before, and everyone thought it was funny how much they looked alike. And then they started to make plans, and they were going to leave Negi with me while they set things up to go to America, and I said I'd take care of him, and ... and I tried, I really did, but he wouldn't stop crying, and, and ..."

"What did you do?" Evangeline asked, appalled.

" **It was an accident!** " Nekane screamed.

Chachazero might have made a comment at this point, but the horrified look on the Master's face kept her in check.

"So, you see, I, I had to betray them, I had to have time to set things up so that they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the children, you see. I've paid!" She was sobbing, now. "I've paid for the crime, surely? I've never been able to tell him I'm his mother, I've only ever been the big sister, and surely that's payment, surely, and what I've done, what I've had to do -"

"I pity you," Evangeline interrupted. "I really do. I don't think I've ever met anyone as pathetic as you. But I can't do anything, I'm cursed -"

"I can break the curse," Nekane told her. "I have the Thousand Master's -"

"Stop it," Evangeline said as she started to get to her feet. "Don't, don't even - I'd have to drain all of your blood, you'd die, he'd never forgive me."

"I don't want to live like this! I'm all rotten inside, can't you see that? He, I, this can't go on!"

"Then tell him, or kill yourself, I don't care which! I don't kill women and children, I will not be a party to your suicide!"

What happened next should not have happened. Evangeline was, as she said, a moderately powerful vampire and a master of puppetry. There was no way that a normal human, even a slightly accomplished magician, should have been able to rush her in such a way as to force her to the stairs and then bite down on a certain part of the shinso's neck that, when bitten, will cause the shinso to bite down on the neck of the one biting her. It should not have happened.

And yet that was the position in which Evangeline found herself a moment later, drinking deep of the blood of Nekane Springfield, straight from the jugular vein.

_No,_ she thought, and sent that thought directly into Nekane's mind, through the connection they now shared. _No, stop this. I am your master, so stop this!_

Nekane did not stop. She should not have been able to resist the compulsion behind that thought. She should have grown weaker as her blood and her magic were drained away, and released the death grip she held on Evangeline's neck. And yet she did not.

It was a day of wonders. Some wonders are dark indeed.

And then, as she commanded, and begged, and humiliatingly pleaded, Evangeline felt the curse shatter. With a last cry, she pushed Nekane away from her, and the woman collapsed to the ground before her.

"Fool," Evangeline said as she looked down on Nekane's still living form. "Fool! You have thrown away your life for nothing! I have no reason to help him! I am free! Free of all of this!" Oddly, she didn't sound happy for this development. There was more of an element of despair in her tone. "I have no reason to help him or anyone!"

"Can we at least kill some people?" Chachazero asked as, for the first time in fifteen years, she came to her feet outside the resort.

"Fool!" Evangeline repeated, summoning up her cloak of bats and striding away, with the doll following behind her.

Nekane was still alive, though her awareness was fading. All she could feel was awful coldness, and even that seemed very far away. And now she was alone, too.

And then she wasn't. There was a man in a hood, looking down at her with a grieving expression. He had a staff like Negi's, the one he claimed his father had given him. Actually, he looked a lot like Nagi. And he was speaking, just loud enough to hear. "It's all right, grandma. It's going to be all right, now. The tide is starting to turn, because of what you did. It's going to be all right."

Grandma? What a strange thing to call her. Negi was far too young to have any children of his own. Why, then this must all just be a dream, just a horrible, horrible dream. Any moment now she would

_Next: Mahora_


	36. Mahora

_Rows and flows of angel hair,_  
 _And icecream castles in the air,_  
 _And feathered canyons everywhere,_  
 _I've looked at clouds that way,_  
 _But now they only block the sun._  
 _They rain and snow on everyone._  
 _So many things I would have done,_  
 _But clouds got in my way._

_I've looked at clouds from both sides now,_  
 _From up and down, and still somehow,_  
 _It's clouds illusions I recall._  
 _I really don't know clouds ... at all._  


* * *

Konoe Konoemon stared out his office window at the great dark tower that had suddenly erupted from the grounds of his academy. He swallowed the urge to say something rather profane as he did so. To do so would be completely inappropriate to an elderly man of his dignity and character. But he would really have enjoyed it. He settled for simply grinding his teeth.

"Well?" he said to the woman standing in front of his desk.

"Sir," Touko said. "We still have full communications capability, but we're nonetheless having a difficult time contacting all our personnel. Casualty reports are just beginning to come in for the explosions. They're not high -"

"They will be," Konoemon interrupted.

"Sir," she replied non-committally. "I'm mobilizing all personnel to repel the invaders. Deadly force has been authorized."

"Yes," he said. Not good. Never good. The order he now had to give was not good either. He drew a deep breath. "Contact our people in JSDF command. Inform them of the situation, and tell them that if they don't receive confirmation of the situation's successful resolution within the next six hours, they're to employ any and all methods to reduce Mahora to a cinder."

"Sir!" Touko protested, horrified.

At last, he turned to look at her, face set in an iron mask. "The alternative is permitting the master of that tower to seize control of the World Tree. Considering what we know about its nature, what can be done with the power it holds, considering the likelihood of his identity, preventing him from doing so qualifies as a G Threshold event." He pronounced the terrifying English loan-words without hesitation.

Touko simply stared at him.

"I believe that our people will succeed, Touko-kun," Konoemon said, sounding gentle this time. "But I must prepare for the alternative." He turned away again. "You have your instructions."

"Yessir," she answered ... and then was gone.

At least, the headmaster mused silently, with Lingshen's activities and the intrusion from the Magical World a few weeks ago, we are prepared for this. It almost makes me wonder whether that preparation might have been the girl's intention all along. He shook his head. That way lay madness.

Such a horrible old man he'd become, putting all the hopes of this academy's survival on such small shoulders. Sayo-chan would have hated the man he'd become.

Ah well. Such was life.

* * *

It had been a strange day for Makie.

She was using the word 'day' in the literal sense, rather than simply beginning with when she'd woken up. In the last twenty-four hours, she'd had a thrilling and just a little bit terrifying adventure, followed by a rather disturbing discovery. Walking in on her three best friends making out in the shower - with each other - had not been anything she'd ever expected to happen. Or wanted to happen. If she'd walked in on them making out with a guy, or two or three guys, that would have been a little embarrassing but kind of hot. But with each other?

Eep.

And the weird thing was, the girl-girl thing didn't bother her in the abstract. She thought that Konoka and Setsuna made an adorable couple, and wished them all the best. Likewise, Nodoka and Yue. And she didn't just want to see Asuna and Ayaka together because it would take out her two biggest competitors for Negi, but because she earnestly believed that they'd be happy together.

The group thing didn't bother her either. As she'd thought earlier, if it had been two or three guys, and they'd been switching around a bit, that would be really, really embarrassing to walk in on but also really, really hot to watch. Although it would have been a little tricky to fit six people in one of those shower stalls. Well, actually -

But anyway! It had really been a relief last night when Ako hadn't come back to their room. Presumably she was spending the night in Akira and Yuna's room, doing with each other whatever it was that they did with each other. On the other hand, she did find it a little lonely in her room that night, on top of the fact that she had weird dreams that she couldn't remember.

Maybe that was what bothered her about all of this. She was being left out. None of them had even made any overtures in her direction. But no, that made no sense! She didn't want that, right, so if they offered, she'd be offended, not flattered, of course. So why would she want to have it offered, so that she could be offended? It wouldn't be flattering.

Right?

All these thoughts and many others with much less in the way of coherence or pertinence had been running through her head as she walked through town the morning after all of that. It would have been nice to stay in bed, but she had a feeling that if she did that, she'd start doing things that would make her even more confused than she already was. She wasn't sure what those things were, exactly. She'd heard vague statements like, "I took care of myself", but she wasn't really sure what they meant.

She didn't want to take care of herself. She wanted to be taken care of by someone else. And that someone else should definitely be male at least, and Negi at most! Right? After all, her friends were cute, and Yuna in particular had some very nice breasts, but she didn't think about girls that way! Ever!

"Aw, man, what a strange day!" Makie finally yelled.

As though on cue, there was a series of explosions all over town right after she said that. She could hear people shouting in panic in the distance, even though her immediate surroundings appeared to be all right. And then there was a rumbling noise as, not too far away, a huge tower grew out of the ground.

Makie just stood there staring.

"I'm sorry," she finally said, she knew not to whom. "I take it back. It's not that strange."

Before she could do anything else, men wearing helmets and heavy armor came out from the buildings around her pointing rifles in her direction, complete with red dot laser pointy things that converged on her chest.

"Team leader to base, team leader to base," one of them said. "Third daughter is secure. Waiting orders to deliver package."

Oh, for the normalcy of a few moments ago.

* * *

They were surrounded on all flanks now.

Nothing too new, all things considered, but somehow, things looked even bleaker, more hopeless, than ever before, even more than when all of Cosmo Entelecheia had shown up to face them in Ostia. There were demons, monsters and armored drones launching from the vehicles everywhere on sight, coming out with no interruptions, swarming down at them despite their best attempts to keep them at bay. There were far too many of them for Negi to be able to plow through them in Lightning Mode without causing collateral damage that would hurt his students, and no matter how many they struck down, more of them took their place just as soon.

"This is nuts!" Haruna grunted, even as her notebook-created giant robot dinosaur crushed several drones between its massive jaws, only to be shot through its head seconds later. "How could this happen so quickly, with no warning at all? Even the Lifemaker took his time to act, so we could have an idea what to expect "

"These are state-of-the-art military attack drones, especially built by LexCorp to battle and subdue alien invaders!" Hakase was more amazed than anything, even as the power fists of her backpack punched a hole through one of them. "Ahhhh, it seems almost a waste to destroy them. Chisame! Why don't you see if you can take some of them over?"

"What do you think I'm doing, playing Online Sudoku? Just cover me while I try to track their origin signals!" the hacker barked, madly typing on her laptop as Yue provided her with covering fire from her wand.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" Yuna gritted her teeth, unloading her guns on row after row of monsters. "Out of all the lousy ways to go - "

"We won't lose anyone, Yuna-san. No matter what, we -" Negi began, striking enemies down at left and right along Asuna and Setsuna, only to gasp when, at that very same moment, one of the largest demons behind him took its chance to jump in a wide arc towards Nodoka.

And then, a few repeated words ran through the air. "Bure, bure, bure bure bure..."

And eleven thin tendrils of darkness flew through the demon's skull, ripping it apart and sending it flying into the horizon before it could reach Nodoka.

Ala Alba and their enemies paused for an instant, looking towards the tall, thin, pale man in a traditional hakama and sandals who had just shown up, surrounded by several young women. He had a wooden ruler in a hand, which was overflowing with dark energy.

"Itoshiki-sensei?" Negi blinked.

"Why?" Itoshiki lamented loudly. "Why, in addition to all of my new added duties covering Takahata's assignments, must I cope with this hopeless situation? What have I done to deserve this punishment?" He blasted one demon trying to sneak up on him with a casual wave of the ruler. "Why do I feel like I have wandered into a plot not involving me at all? Why do I have to help with this, something I want no part in? I'M IN DESPAIR! THE FACT THE FACULTY ALWAYS DUMP THE WORST MESSES ON ME DRIVES ME TO DESPAIR!"

The attackers took the chance to regroup, some of them lunging at the newcomers to overwhelm them as well, but then, one of the girls with Itoshiki jumped ahead to smash several of them with a single swing of the glowing silvery spade in her hands.

The girl, who had her long silky black hair parted right down the middle of her head, fumed madly while smashing robots and monsters alike. "Make up your damn minds!" she shouted. "Either you are an invading robot army, or an invading demon army! Evil forces who can't decide what they want to be are the worst! Have some consistency! This kind of uneven disorder angers me to no end!"

Another girl, this one with short black hair and a very happy and wide pleasant smile, wearing a very pretty short skirted pink dress, skipped ahead joyfully. "Come on, come on, Chiri-chan!" she said, with a voice eerily identical to that of Konoka. "I'm sure these hellish beasts and soulless machines only want to be our friends! It's just they only know how to express their emotions through violence! That's why we must offer them our friendship first! Here, monster-san!" She pulled out a huge pink bag, and sprayed pink fragrant flower petals all over a large group of enemies. "This is a gift from your friends in class 3-F!"

The opponents looked unsure of what to do for a second, as the petals blanketed them. Then the petals suddenly became sharp, large metallic spinning saws, shredding them to rips of metal, blood and guts in a wink.

"Ahhhh, it happened again!" The girl sounded amazed. "Well, maybe next time!"

A busty and tall girl with twin braids, wearing nothing but hospital bandages wrapped all over her body, used the bandages as razor sharp tentacles she swung around in all directions, splicing through demons and drones alike like a hot knife through butter.

Another, much smaller, girl carrying a cellphone pressed a few keys on it, and instantly, the drones around her froze in place, shaking as their display screens only showed error messages.

_Hey dere, dudz, your outta place here. Go 2 hell, loozers._

A nervous, shaky girl in a yellow rain trenchcoat waved an umbrella around, her teeth chattering. "S-S-So sorry about this! Really! I hope this d-doesn't discourage you from visiting Mahora on better terms later!" she apologized while creating huge streams of water out of the air's humidity, sending them in gigantic blasts to crush the machines and drown several monsters.

A taller, grinning girl with glasses and long black hair, looking a bit like Haruna, was scribbling and doodling quickly on a Pactio notebook of her own, finally holding it up for some demons to see. The page that was shown depicted those demons blowing their own heads off. "Look! A really good work, don'tcha think? I doubt you'll ever see something better, right? Now do it! The power of the Geass Death Note compels you!"

Stiffening in place, compelled against their will by a force they couldn't oppose, the demons aimed their claws at their own heads and blasted them off with hellfire.

Haruna groaned. "Always the showoff, Fujiyoshi-sempai."

"Pot, kettle -" Yue muttered.

A tall, busty, buxon blonde in a microskirt, wearing a black leather jacket, a black tube top with lots of cleavage, and a red scarf, arrived on the scene on a motorcycle - specifically, a speeding motorcycle armed with twin machineguns blowing several enemies down. "What nerve, attacking us at our own school, without any warning, harassing and bothering us while we were taking a few days off! This goes against all our rights explicitly stated in the laws! I'LL SUE YOU!"

Finally, a very beautiful girl with a long black mane struck even more monsters with a glowing long katana. She moved with perfect grace and elegance, finishing the last few enemies in the area before smiling and resting, standing at Itoshiki's side.

"Itoshiki-sensei ... when -" Negi babbled.

The older teacher blushed and coughed. "Well, I mean, you aren't the only one who has had things happening to him!"

"I'm Ministra Magi Kitsu Chiri!" the girl with the spade said.

"Ministra Magi Fuura Kafuka!" the Konoka-sounding girl chirped.

"Ministra Magi Kobushi Abiru, " the bandaged girl said, before taking a moment to tug on Kotaro's tail. Kotaro yelped. Natsumi scowled.

The tiny girl showed something she just wrote on her cellphone. Ministra Magi Otonashi Meru, ya pozers.

"M-M-Ministra Magi Kaga Ai!" The shaky girl bowed quickly. "Sorry for taking so long! Sorry, sorry, I'm really sorry!"

The blond girl stood, arms crossed, on top of her bike, the wind blowing her skirt up and flashing pink strawberry printed panties to everyone. "Ministra Magi Kimura Kaere!"

"Ministra Magi Fujiyoshi Harumi!" the other mangaka grinned, leering in Haruna's direction.

"Ministra Magi Tsunetsuki Matoi," a girl with very short black hair showed up behind Itoshiki, holding a sword much like Asuna's in a hand, and another one much Setsuna's in the other. Both of them were covered in demonic dark blood.

"Gah!" Itoshiki sprang up. "You were here?"

She nodded. "Yes. Always."

"Ministra Magi Itoshiki Rin," the girl with the katana smiled, posing in a way that accentuated her behind.

Negi gave Itoshiki a stunned glance. "B-but Sensei, she is your, your -"

The older man fidgeted nervously. "I-I-I only granted her a Pactio! Nothing else!" He didn't sound too convincing. The faint blush on Rin's cheek didn't help matters.

"But - but -" Negi began.

Chisame bonked a fist down on his head. "Oh, like you've any room to talk!" she said.

Harumi smirked, slamming a hand on her own chest. "3-A, our hated rivals! No matter what our differences may be, we are all Mahora students, and we'll defend this school together to the last breath, to the last man or woman! So, in the glorious tradition of shonen manga, we will cover and secure this area, allowing you to go fight the Big Bad!"

Negi breathed in and nodded, biting his lower lip. "Thank you, Itoshiki-sensei ... girls ..." He turned to his own companions. "Ala Alba, and associates - let's go! For everyone's sake!"

His comrades nodded as a single being.

Once they were gone for the tower, Itoshiki sighed, turning around to face the next horde of incoming enemies. "So, this is what being a hero feels like."

* * *

With their rear covered by Itoshiki and his ministra, Negi's party were able to cover most of the distance to the base of the tower. Their passage wasn't unchallenged, but they were no longer pinned down. Many of their demonic assailants were taken down within seconds by the lethal combination of Asuna's Cancel and Setsuna's Shinmeiryuu training, with Negi's fists, Kotaro's claws, and Mana's bullets accounting for most of the mechanical ones.

But within no more than a short distance of the tower, their progress came to an abrupt halt. Negi stopped dead in his tracks. "Incoming telepathica!" he shouted. "It's Ku!" He pulled out the martial artist's pactio and held it to his head as Setsuna and Asuna took up guard positions around him - accompanied by Ayaka, somewhat to Asuna's surprise. Before Asuna could say anything, though, Ayaka gave her a smoldering 'shut up' look that made her back down. For now.

But the pause left them open to an ambush, as one of the larger war machines dropped down right in front of them. To Haruna's untrained eye, it resembled the drone that had greeted them as they came out of the library during the festival, only larger and not quite as sophisticated looking. Its guns swiveled towards Negi's position, leaving it wide open to attack from the rest of the party.

Yuna needed to say something stirring and dramatic. It was part of the code, after all. She opened her mouth to cry out -

"For Mahora!" shouted Yue and Nodoka as one as they directed a large number of Sagita Magica at the war machine.

"For Ariadne!" shouted Collet and Beatrix, not to be outdone, as they directed fire at its other side.

Now Yuna was annoyed. To hell with the code! "For Tommy and Gina who never backed down!" she shrieked as she drew her guns and began firing up into the machine's leg servomotors.

One of her bolts hit a crucial section of the motor at just the right time to blow the leg off, unbalancing it at just the right time to send it crashing to the ground. It did not move again.

Slowly, Collet turned to look at Yuna. "Those must be very potent deities you just invoked, " she said.

"Yeah! Right! Eyes front!"

All the while, Negi had been receiving a communication from Ku Fei. Where are you, Ku-roshi? he sent.

_With Asakura at Chao Bao Zi, the martial artist replied. We come here for -_

There was a brief squawk before the signal stabilized once again. _Negi-sensei, this is Satsuki._

_?!? Satsuki-san? How are you doing this?_

_Class representative powers. It was a few years ago in Elem - that's not important, sensei. I'm here with Asakura and Zazie, as well as a couple of my part-timers. Even though Ku and Zazie have managed to hold off any attackers here, I don't think we can last much longer at this location. But I don't want to test the flight mode on the car without someone who knows about its workings taking a look at it!_

It was a little unnerving for Negi to 'hear' the obvious apprehension in the 'voice' of the usually placid chef. _Satomi's here with us, I'll send her your way ASAP._

_Thank you, sensei._ Brief pause. _She put more than just flight mode systems on the train, sensei._

_What do you -_ But the contact was broken before he could finish sending the question. He didn't let his eyes snap open just yet, turning his thoughts to the problem of sending Satomi to their assistance. She'd need backup. Who to send with her?

_I wish Misora-san were here,_ he thought. _She'd be perfect, if Satomi were willing to be carried by her. Where could she be?_

* * *

It had been a perfectly normal day. Spend half the night making sweet, sweet love to Cocone, stay in bed eating cereal fruit bars for breakfast, make the earth move for Cocone again -

Wait.

The Earth really was moving.

Misora and Cocone paused, staring out the window at the huge, immensely Freudian tower now rearing over the landscape.

"Maybe we can pretend we slept through it, and Negi-sensei will just make it go away before dinner," Misora said weakly.

Cocone seemed to consider this for a moment, before she let out seemingly tranquil sigh that spoke VOLUMES to Misora about her extreme, near-murderous annoyance. The little telepath took a while to read, but when you bothered to learn she not only spokes volumes, but whole libraries.

* * *

The public face of the Mahoran contingent of the church - many of whom actually were clergy - were working their way outward from the church that was built over their primary underground facility, faces grim about the situation. Well, most of them.

"At last!" senior priest Kotomine Kirei enunciated loftily, quite an achievement for a man crouched behind a plant box holding a Bible in one hand and pulling Black Keys out of it with the other. "The end is nigh! The Tower of Babel has risen once more as a sign of the Judgment most divine! The lord has decided to punish us finally for our evil ways, and has sent his metal angels to slay the unbelievers and send them to eternal damnation!"

Sister Shakti repressed the urge to take the nine millimeter holstered to her hip and then shoot the Apocalypse-Fetishist in the head. Kirei was a good fighter and quite reliable when it came both to the battlefield and the day-to-day workings of the church, but all of Mahora agreed he tied with Itoshiki Nozomu when it came to whose mouth spouted the most depressing things.

Seruhiko, clad only in hastily donned pants and undershirt since he and Shakti had been interrupted - she herself was only wearing underwear, a towel, and her weapon belts - essayed a cough. "Actually Kirei-kun, I beleive this is just normal magic and some mundane weaponry."

Kirei shifted gears without his face changing one iota. "The infidels who attempt this blasphemy must be punished! How dare they usurp what is only the Lord's to do? The end of the world may only come about by the hand of the Almighty and his loyal priesthood! No hand but mine may plunge Mahora into a pit of endless death and fire!"

Next to him, Father Gendo was nodding. "Indeed. So it says in the Dead Sea Scrolls."

Off to the side, pseudo-nuns-in-training Ikari Yui and Caren Ortensia exchanged looks. "What do you see in him?" Caren asked.

"I could ask you the same question," Yui shot back.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Caren said, completely blank-faced.

* * *

Misora ran down the streets of Mahora, Cocone sitting on her shoulders and telepathically feeding her predictive data from the elementary fortune telling spell she was maintaining. Her Artifact, while increasing her running speed, did not accelerate her thoughts or her perceptions, and thus it was unsafe to try to use at really fast speeds unless the way forward was relatively clear. Unfortunately, due to all the demons and tanks and whatnot running around, it wasn't, and so the fortune telling spell was needed.

As she jumped over empty air where a mortar shell suddenly streaked though as she was in mid-leap, she suppressed the urge to cry. Racing towards the defense of the central base was all well and good, but what exactly was she supposed to do? She wasn't some kind of combat savant like her Ala Alba classmates were! Heck, she was barely competent at the running around and casting spells part of her training!

As she dashed around a patch of ground upon which a demon suddenly fell into, followed by the slightly crazy-eyed Tohsaka Sakura, her normally purple hair pale in her berserker frenzy as she began ripping chunks out of the demon to consume for power, Misora resolved to look for a new line of work, some place idle and peaceful. She'd heard they were setting up a group to go to Gotham City and help set up a new hospital. That would be a nice change of pace. Just a normal, far from magical, highly urbanized city.

A slight telepathic prod from Cocone derailed that train of thought literally: Misora saw a summer-blockbuster-worthy vision of a train jumping off its tracks because of a penny on the rail, slamming into a train coming the other way, and resulting in an explosion that leveled the countryside and threw up so much smoke it started the next ice age, reminding Misora of her more immediate responsibilities, like not getting killed, surviving through this and getting back to giving her girlfriend some sweet, sweet lovin'. Cocone unvocally growled in lusty agreement.

Up ahead, they saw some college students laying waste about them with spell and Artifact. Misora didn't really know their names, but she vageuly recognized them from meetings as some of the mage students, like herself, or Goodman, Mei and Nutmeg. She thought they called themselves Iridia.

Her mind drifted dangerously off topic, and she barely perceived Cocone's telepathic warning to move until it was too late. The groud she was standing one suddenly levered upward and sideways, throwing off her rhythm and balance as a Demon tried to pounce on them from behind. Fortunately, it had underestimated her speed, and thus had ended up eating concrete rather than their heads. The sudden improptu platform its landing had created, however, sent Misora and Cocone hurtling into the air, and the unexpected vector added by the suddenly unstable ground through off Misora's stance, making her spin dangerously, her feet no longer under her. Frantically, she tried to twist and grab Cocone, to keep her body between the hard landing and the little girl's.

Cold, narrow threads suddenly surrounded her, and confusion reigned for a moment before she recognized the feel of Soei-jutsu threads wraping around her and gently setting her down.

"You all right, kohai?" someone asked her, and she looked up to see a vaguely feminine face peering down at her in concern from behind large, squarish glasses. He wore a blue vest and diagonally slashed black and white pants and shirt.

"I wanna go back to bed, " Misora gibbered.

"Don't we all, " a solid-looking, vaguely Latino male said, his own glasses slightly askew. Misora loopily noted he seemed to be wearing a Chiu-sama t-shirt and holding a strange, vaguely disturbing mask of a pale, laughing face with blood red lips. Some kind of Artifact, Misora surmised. "It's getting back up!"

The demon that had crash-landed roared, sending Misora panicking to her feet.

The vaguely feminine-looking boy, who seemed to be some kind of leader, called out, "Anemoi, lantern that thing! it's a demon, it needs magic to be able to sustain impossible metabolic functions! Marq, SHOOT IT!"

Two other students moved into action. One, who looked like some kind of Jewish taxidermist wielding some kind of severed head charged forward heedless of danger, the head held high like a talisman, and Misora felt her heart growing lighter for some reason. His coat fluttered dramatically in the wind as he approached the demon, who was struggling to move, panting and choking, its wings fluttering fitfully.

The other student held up what was apparently his artifact, which looked like a Faberge egg made of diamond, surrounded with a golden lattice. "Potentia Puellae Sagittarius" he called out, and the Artifact glowed as the wind dramatically caught his long blue bangs. When it dimmed, a little girl barely taller than Cocone stood in his place, though with inappropriately large breasts, wearing an all white outfit and holding a rifle. "Noble Phantasm: Iron Sight!" she called out, and there was a shot that cracked the air as an ominously glowing dark bullet streaked.

The one called Anemoi quickly jumped out of the way, just as it struck the demon, which died instantly.

"Nice, " the first one said. "Which one was that?"

"Simo Hayha, " the little girl said, glowing as she transformed back into a college student.

Another student wearing a purple hoodie approached Misora. "You all right, kohai?" he asked. Little tendrils of cold mist seemed to emanate from him.

Misora nodded. "F-fine. But we really need to get going! We need to reach the church to help with the defense there!"

The first student smiled grimly. "Well, we'll see what we can do about getting you there. Iridia, let's clear a path, then we need to continue on to library island! If anything happens to those books --"

"What is it with you and books?" a vague, dark-blob said, looking kinda like one of those inky monster things that followed Zazie around.

"I like them. Is there some problem with that?" the first student asked. "RT, can you use your Artifact to does something about all this?"

The dark blob with its glowing eyes raised something that looked vaguely like a cellphone, its formless tendril arms tapping quickly, and shook its head. "No good! Whatever is on the other side isn't responding to request through my Ex Altera Parte Quarti Muri. Something about a greater overarching plot overriding my requests. It still works on a micro level, though. It's not raining dramatically like it was supposed to be."

The first hissed. "Fine, we do this the old-fashioned way. Overmaster, Anemoi, Mega, you regroup with Cygan, Cygnus, Immi, Starwave and head for the library. RT, keep trying to contact the Professor!"

The one holding the mask nodded, gesturing to the others as he put the mask on his face. Instantly, it seemed to bond with his flesh, his clothes becoming a rather stylish purple suit as he led the way.

"Sereg, you think you can give our little kohai a little boost to help her get where she's going?"

A curly-haired student with a rather high hairline pulled a book, murmuring Magus Liber Alter to activate it. "Well, let's see what we've got ..."

Misora suddenly shook as she felt the magic affect her, and when she did, her shoes suddenly felt warm. Surprised, she looked down at her Artifacts. They were subtly different, and she felt instinctively they were faster than before.

Sereg nodded. "I've switched you with a similar version of your self from some unequally rational and emotional place. You'll be slightly faster now. Sorry, it's the best I can do on such short notice."

The first student nodded and cracked his knuckles as the others ran off to head for the library. "Be ready to run, kohai. I'll clear you a path, then be running off myself. My Artifact's been acting wonky lately, so this is the best I can do. Adeat, Fenestra Creationis Scribendi!" A kind of tablet appeared in his hands, and he hastily began tapping on scribbling on it. "Enter! Alteration loaded. Initiating actualization!"

A girl in a white and purple costume resembling a sailor fuku suddenly appeared. "Death reborn revolution!" she cried, bringing down the scythe she was holding, and a globe-shaped path of destruction cut through the streets in a relatively straight line before disappearing abruptly.

The college student grimaced. "Damn. Too much resistance. Well, the path is clear, kohai! Start running."

Suiting actions to words, he turned to run where his companions had gone.

"Thanks sempai!" Misora called out. "Hey! Got a name?"

"My friends call me SCM!" he called back. "Ask anybody! you'll find me."

"See you around!" Misora called one last time. She looked over at Cocone. "Betcha I never see that guy again."

Cocone nodded in solemn agreement as Misora began to run again.

Wow, she WAS faster now.

They hurried on to the church.

* * *

But there was no point in Negi wishing for things that couldn't be. His eyes opened. "Satomi, I need you to head for the Chao Bao Zi to help Satsuki-san get it airborne," he called out as he stood up. "Kaede, will you please -"

"I'll do it," interrupted Mana. "You'll need her here."

"And of course, you wish to demonstrate that you're a better courier," Kaede noted dryly.

"That's a factor," Mana allowed.

"Okay," Negi agreed, beckoning for Mana to come over. "Nobody gets near her, all right?" he said quietly.

"Not within thirty feet," she agreed. "But before I go -" And with that, she quite soundly kissed him in front of the entire party.

"What, what -" he stammered when she released his lips.

"Damn, but you're cute when you blush," she said, then turned to Satomi. "Let's go," she said with a nod of her head.

"Ah, yes," the mad scientist agreed, just a little flustered.

Nodoka and Yue just stared for a moment, before turning to look at each other. "Do you get the feeling that we've been leaving some people out of our speculations?" Yue asked.

Nodoka nodded, in a way that would have seemed solemn if not for the look of extreme befuddlement on her face.

Yuna, who had been taking pot shots at the demons surrounding them, abruptly yelled out. "We've got incoming!"

"Hold your fire!" Asuna shouted just as loudly. "That's not a -"

The flying figure landed some distance away, among a group of demons who'd been driven back by Itoshiki and company, and proceeded to eviscerate them with a series of slices from her armblades. Cleaning her blades with a flick of the wrists, she bowed in Negi's direction. "Sensei. I apologize for my tardiness," said Chachamaru.

Negi gaped for a moment. "Cha- No, no, it's my fault for -"

"Oh, come on, you're not going to do the 'it's my fault no it's mine' routine now, are you?" Chisame shouted at him. Bracing herself, she turned to look at Chachamaru, suspecting that everyone there could see her blushing, hearing the catch in her voice as she addressed her. "Chachamaru - did she send you?"

"No. The Master gave me permission to come to Negi-sensei's assistance, but did not give me any instructions in this matter. When I departed, she was pouting over the damage done to her home," Chachamaru replied, telling the truth as she knew it.

"Then I suppose that she won't be coming to help us herself," Negi said grimly. "Well, she did warn me that she wouldn't always be there. Thank you for coming, Chachamaru."

"You are welcome, Negi-sensei. You should be aware that Arika-sama and Chizuru-san are apparently within the tower," the gynoid said, clearly aware that she was dropping a bombshell.

The detonation rocked Ayaka, Natsumi and Kotaro, as well as Asuna and Negi. It was the actress who found her voice first. "What, what is Chizu-ne doing in that thing?!"

Chachamaru blinked, then, as though answering a serious question, replied, "The highest probability is that she is being held captive. I assign somewhat lower probabilities to the notion that she is responsible for its creation."

"Oh, great, you picked now to develop sarcasm!" Chisame snarled.

"Enough," Negi said, trying to sound forceful. "This doesn't change anything. We've just got to get into the tower, fight our way up to the floor where they're being held - the top, right?"

"Correct, sensei," Chachamaru confirmed.

"Y'know, I think we can do better," Haruna said, glaring at the tower and pulling out her artifact. "Skip the 'fight our way up' part. Just give me some cover while I'm doing this!"

On Negi's nod, the party proceeded to surround Haruna, taking out the occasional attackers who approached them while she knelt down to the ground and began drawing frantically. As she drew, she started to mutter. "Tezuka-sensei, manga no kami-sama, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it, and, let's not kid ourselves, you really wouldn't have approved of me.

"The strange thing is, I get that now. I never would have before all this happened. I always told myself that I could always understand the other person's point of view, that I could tolerate anything, but when it came to people who weren't tolerant ... that's where my own tolerance ended. Funny, huh? But then, for the first time, I found something I couldn't tolerate."

Nodoka paused in her efforts to read the demonic attackers minds and turned to stare at Haruna for a moment, before focusing on her task once more, shouting information to those who needed it.

"But that's not important right now. Right now, for the first time in a while, my friends are all on the same page, all doing what they can to help others, to stop bad things from happening. And I want to do my part. So if you're listening to this silly person's prayer, help me get this right. This needs to be the best drawing I've ever done, Tezuka-sensei.

"And if you're not listening, well, I liked Urasawa-sensei's interpretation of your characters better than yours anyway." She drew in a deep breath, then stood up, holding her sketchpad before her like a shield. "Harunakaizer - hasshin!" she shouted, bracing herself.

Out from the sketchpad, something enormous emerged. Haruna's teeth clenched, not in her usual maniacal grin, but in genuine pain. She had never animated anything this huge. It dwarfed the giant robot dinosaur she'd drawn a few minutes ago, and its mass! Maybe including that note about the neutronium in its armor plating hadn't been such a good idea. There was usually a little pang when the creation leaped off the page, but nothing like this!

But then it was out - the largest robot she'd ever imagined, almost as large as the twisted tower itself, eyes glowing a bright blue, and a sword patterned on Asuna's blade in its hand. "Let's make an entrance," Haruna shouted, and the robot swung its blade towards the tower's walls -

And vanished like a soap bubble the instant it contacted them.

"Ehhhh?" Haruna asked aloud.

"Wait a minute," Asuna yelled. "That was -"

* * *

"- Magic Cancel?" Arika shouted as she watched all this on the monitors.

"Of course!" Alladia said, clearly amused at her consternation. "Surely you didn't think that once our daughter was born with the power, that would be the end of my efforts? What use is the ultimate weapon if only one person can use it? The studies began almost as soon as she was out of you. It took years and a fortune to produce results, but I had both. Even so, the artificial Magic Cancel isn't quite as perfect as the original, but it will function quite nicely for my purposes."

He turned back to look at the screens. "Now, I wonder what little Negi will try this time?" he asked, smiling.

"He almost sounds proud of him," Chizuru mused softly, intending the words for Arika's ears alone.

"Why shouldn't I be?" the mad king said, having plainly overheard her. "Simply by being male, he is far more suitable an heir than _a certain person_ could ever be. Not that I will ever need an heir, of course, since I intend to live forever, but it's the idea of the thing. Further, as my descendant through two lines, he is -"

"So Nagi's mother was one of your byblows," Arika interjected. "I thought so!"

Alladia coughed. Then he turned and, with eye-blinding speed, moved across the chamber to deliver a slap to Arika's cheek that could easily have broken the neck of anyone less resilient. "Do not interrupt me," he said softly, then turned his deadly gaze on Chizuru. "Either of you."

Returning to stand by his chair, where the slime-girl Purin was still seated. "The woman who grew to be called Nicole Anne Springfield was my second-born daughter," he continued casually. "I got her on my younger sister soon after she turned twelve, around the time that I first developed my plans to create a new child with Magic Cancel. I believed that the way to do so was to increase the purity of our bloodline, so she was the logical choice. In retrospect, I suppose I should have heeded her objections, for it turned out that she was only a half-sister, and her child didn't bear the mark of our family." He pointed towards his mismatched eyes, twins to Arika's own.

"Nor was there an opportunity to try again, for the wench had the audacity to die giving birth. I ordered the child killed as well, but that proved too much for my servants, who smuggled her to the Old World. Ah, well. It worked out in the long run, I suppose. The boy will make an excellent enforcer, once I break his will." He smiled brightly as he watched Negi's party come under heavy assault once more. "And all this talk of my past conquests is quite arousing! Purin, dear, do you think your sisters would be interested in a bit of fun?"

Purin nodded vigorously.

"Let's go down and visit them, shall we?" he added, picking her up and strolling over to the elevator shaft.

Chizuru cleared her throat a moment later. "I apologize for comparing you to him," she said quietly. "It was unfair."

"Not really," Arika replied, just as quietly. "Of course, some good does come of all this. I've speculated before that the Royal Magic will act to mitigate genetic damage from inbreeding, and if I could have a healthy child with one who was my - hm, half-nephew and first cousin, somewhat removed? Something like that - then it seems that must be the case." She smiled. "Asuna can have Negi's child without worries."

Chizuru privately thought that it said something about her new-found sister that such things were on her mind at a time like this, but didn't say anything, to preserve the fragile entente between them.

* * *

Makie was sure that there had to be worse situations than this one. Not being very clever, though, she found that she couldn't think of any. Here she was, standing in the middle of the street, unable to make even a slight move for fear that one of the people pointing very, very large guns at her would take it amiss and then shoot her. Which would be bad, although there was the slight chance that she could dodge the bullet. However, if one of them started shooting, Makie was pretty sure that the rest would start in on it, too, and she couldn't possibly dodge all of the bullets.

All of this would be bad enough, but on top of that, it just went on and on!

They'd been standing there for ages and ages, it felt like, with the guy who'd radioed in the report of her capture now trying to get ahold of someone in authority on the other end. "No, I don't want you to disturb him," he was saying now. "And I especially don't want you disturb him and then tell him that I told you to disturb him! But I have the package, and I don't want to just stand here waiting for someone to come along and interrupt - yes, I do understand where you're coming from, but -

"Y'know, to hell with this, I'm going to put this doohickey they gave me on her and send her to you! Then you can figure out what you're going to do with her once she gets there. I don't care if you don't appreciate this! I don't appreciate any of this! Screw you too!" He reached up and yanked an earbud out of his ear, and then looked at Makie, smiling warmly. She couldn't see his eyes behind his reflective sunglasses, but she didn't think the smile reached them. It wasn't that kind of smile.

"Okay, girly, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to amble on over to you, and attach this little widget to your upper torso," he said, holding up a thin strip of paper printed with some characters that Makie couldn't quite make out. "You might say to yourself, I can probably turn this whole situation around, all I have to do is just grab this guy and then the rest of his buddies will have to let me go! Are you thinking along those lines?"

"Not really, I'm not that sort of person," Makie answered honestly.

"Yeah, right. Anyway, you can do that, but it won't matter. These guys, they're loyal to their wallets, you know what I mean? If they've gotta shoot you through me, they'll do it without blinking an eye. So there's no real point in it, is there?"

"I'm really not that sort of person," Makie replied, wondering why he didn't believe her. What a sad, cynical man. "What is that thing?"

"Apparently, it's a teleportation sutra," he explained. "I put it on you, and activate it, and you're instantly moved somewhere else."

"Like maybe Hawaii?" asked Makie, hopefully.

"No, not Hawaii," the man told her patiently.

"Too bad. I've never been to Hawaii. Are you sure I couldn't go there instead of wherever you're planning to send me?"

"I'm very sure. Okay, I'm going to start walking now," he announced.

"Can I maybe talk you out of that? I just really think this is a very bad idea -" Makie started to ask, but she broke off when the man started laughing. It wasn't mean laughter, like he was laughing at what she'd said, more like he was laughing at the whole situation. Maybe he wasn't so bad. Maybe they could work something out. Maybe -

"Oh, wow, thanks. I needed that," he said, after a while. And with that he started walking towards her.

He hadn't taken three steps in her direction before a pink rose quite abruptly landed, stem first, in the street in front of him.

He stared at the rose. So, for that matter, did Makie. She'd only been eight years old when a certain anime went off the air, but her older brother had been a fan (stridently maintaining that there was nothing at all girly about his interest) and so there'd been plenty of VHS tapes to watch on lazy afternoons. Slowly she turned in the direction from which the rose had been flung, wondering if there would be a tuxedoed stranger standing there. She was disappointed in her speculation.

Standing there was a girl ... no, a woman. Well, she definitely looked older than Makie, even if she wasn't a grown-up, and it was hard to guess her age. Her hair was pink, much like Makie's own, but her eyes were a bright, almost luminescent blue. She was wearing a long, dark blue coat over blue jeans and a white shirt. And she looked ... tired, or maybe sick.

"You?" the man said, in a strangled voice.

"I see that my reputation proceeds me," the woman replied in a toneless voice, as she started walking towards where Makie was standing.

Looking around, Makie could see that the men pointing guns at her were all having reactions like their nominal leader. Some of them were shaking their heads in disbelief; some were shaking far more generally. And ... now she knew she had to be imagining this, but Makie could swear that she could smell pee! Which was ridiculous, of course. But none of them had made any attempt to shoot the woman who by now had walked past their leader, and was standing right beside their target.

"It's going to be okay, I'm going to get you out of here," she said to Makie, in the same quiet toneless voice, before raising it a little as she made an announcement. "All right. You all know who I am. You know what will happen if you try anything with me. You are a large group of men at arms ... and I am a single person with right on my side. You all know how that story plays out. So I'm going to walk away, with her, and you're all going to just chalk this up as a loss. Okay?"

Without waiting for a response, the woman reached around Makie's shoulder and held her firmly. "Start walking," she said, quiet again. "Don't run until we get around the corner, but then run like your life depends on it, because it will."

Slowly, they walked past the fire team's leader, and then past the men who had been surrounding her. They kept walking until they reached the corner of the intersection, and then, as Makie heard one of the men shouting, "Hey, wait a minute!", they started to run.

"Who are you?" Makie asked as she ran beside her, hearing the sounds of several feet pursuing them.

"Call me Tomoko," the woman said. Then she did a double take. "You don't know me?"

Makie shook her head, then let out a shriek as 'Tomoko' abruptly changed the direction they were running, dragging her along with her.

"They're going to try and cut us off if we keep going one direction," she told her. "An actual innocent. That's ... incredible. Okay, I need you to tell me a place where you'll be safe."

"Wherever Negi-sensei is," Makie promptly said.

"Place, not person," 'Tomoko' said, her toneless voice getting a little sharp.

"Okay, okay, uh, the Chao Bao Zi. Do you -"

"They have great soup, there. All right. I'm going to do something a little scary now."

"What?" Makie asked, wondering what could possibly be scarier than -

She grabbed hold of Makie's torso and leapt up into the air.

Ask a silly question ...

* * *

The day had started out so nicely, too.

She'd woken up curled up beside Madoka in her bed, with far more than just their pinkies entwined. (Eeeee!) The only way it could have been better was if there was another warm form on the other side of her. But Misa had firmly indicated that such a turn of events was never ever ever going to happen, not even if Sakurako gave her puppy dog eyes for the rest of time, so she should just stop.

Saku still thought she could wear her down before graduation. She was a lucky girl.

Of course, with the new session starting in just a few days, it was important for them to get ready for their autumn cheerleading duties. They'd kind of slacked off on their training over the summer, what with one thing and another, and so it was imperative (in Misa's words) that they pick up the pace. So, eventually, she hauled her two smitten roomies out of their beds and into warm-up suits for a jog down to the football field.

They arrived just as everything went to hell all over campus. This had become distressingly familiar, so the three of them promptly took shelter in the gym locker room. If there'd been an opportunity to arm themselves, like there had been before, they'd have taken it, but as things actually stood, they were just a trio of athletic young girls, one of whom was admittedly very lucky.

And so it was that they were there when the demons came for them. Somewhat predictably, these were vaguely humanoid demons who had wavy tentacles instead of hands, and their intentions were distressingly clear. Fortunately, they were not terribly clever demons, and the cheerleaders were easily able to hide from them. Unfortunately, one didn't have to be terribly clever to block a door. So no matter how the girls hid, eventually, they were going to be found.

"Okay, don't panic," whispered Misa, who was clearly close to panicking. "There's got to be something we can do."

Slowly, Sakurako peeked out around the corner of the rows of lockers, to see that the majority of the demons were on the far side of the room from the three of them. There were four of them, she thought. That was sort of overkill, she thought. After all, there were only three of them, so what was the fourth one supposed to do while they were - she decided not to think along these lines anymore.

And then a plan occurred to her. "Hey, Misa," she said softly. "I bet I can deal with these guys. If I lose, and we survive, I'll be your servant for a month."

"Saku, what are you talking about?" Madoka hissed.

"And what if you do pull this miracle off?" Misa asked. "I'm not going to be anyone's servant -"

"Guess," Saku cooed, reaching up to tickle Misa's cheek.

Misa rolled her eyes. "Fine. If you pull this off, I'll give you both a freebie. But you won't. I bet you can't."

"Do I get a vote in this?" asked Madoka, looking a little alarmed.

Sakurako drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes. She didn't even come close to understanding her luck. It was just, you know, luck. Things went her way, most of the time. And when they didn't, well, it wasn't so bad. But if this went the other way, it would be _really_ bad. She needed to be really, really, lucky, so she reached deep down inside herself, searching for her center as she had never searched for anything.

And then, before she could let self-doubt paralyze her, she slammed the palm of her hand against the lockers they were hiding behind. Improbably, but not impossibly, they fell back, slamming into the next row, which then hit the next, and then the row behind which the demons were presently discussing their options, hitting them with the accumulated force of a row of dominoes and squashing them flat.

Madoka and Misa stared at this for a moment, before they slowly turned to look at Sakurako, who was smiling a silly grin. "Just lucky, I guess," she said, as blood slowly began to drip from her nose. And then she fainted dead away.

* * *

Ku Fei wasn't really impressed by the quality of her opponents this day. Really, more than anything else, they reminded her of the demon-guys that she'd fought in Kyoto during the class trip, only not as easy-going. And she'd progressed a lot farther in her training since then, so there really shouldn't be any problem.

However, she was starting to realize something, as she smashed yet another drone with the business end of her compliant rod. If someone had told her about the quote 'Sometimes quantity has a quality all its own,' she would have nodded and loudly agreed that whoever had said that had possessed great wisdom. Had they then told her to whom it was attributed, she would have glared at them for making her look like an idiot. Again.

She was burning energy every time she smited one of them. And they kept right on coming. Eventually, she'd be too tired to go on, and they'd overcome her by numbers. The cold equations spelled her inevitable defeat.

She wasn't enough of an idiot that she couldn't grasp this. She simply chose not to let it trouble her unduly, even as she started to feel just a bit fatigued -

Fatigued enough, she abruptly realized, to let one of them sneak up behind her, and even as she whirled to bring her staff up to block its killing blow, she knew she wasn't going to make it.

And then the demon rocked back as two bullets hit it right in the middle of its flat forehead. "Bullets?" it exclaimed. "Regular bullets! I'm insulted!"

"Very sorry," said Ku, and smashed right through his head. "That type is immune to bullets-aru!" she called over her shoulder.

"They slow them down at least," Mana opined as she ran up with Satomi, who was starting to wonder whether her robotic arms could double as legs. She'd never run so much in all her life before this point, and wasn't really enjoying it. She continued up to their goal as Mana stood sentinel with Ku.

"Okay," Satomi announced at the door of the Chao Bao Zi, breathing just a bit heavily. "I'm here, where's the -"

Satsuki quietly pressed an energy drink into Satomi's hand.

"Okay, this will help, thank you, Satsuki-san, but I need to -"

Satsuki gestured for her to drink it. With a sigh, Satomi did so, and felt her dehydration ease a bit. "Okay, now, the flight systems?"

Satsuki nodded and led her over to them. They were similar to the ones she'd installed in Chachamaru, though of course on a much larger scale. All of the vectored thrusters appeared to be functioning to specifications, and the system's gyroscopic stabilizer was on balance. Frankly, Satomi found herself a little disappointed. Surely Chao would have told Satsuki how to engage in inspections like this! She'd been expecting there to be something really wrong, that she'd have to fix in far less time than someone would normally need to do do.

"It's all in order, so if you want to get this thing in motion -"

Satsuki nodded, and then explained what else she neeeded Satomi to do.

"Sorry, what?" Satomi asked, blinking her eyes.

Satsuki repeated her explanation.

"Uh ... I had no idea that she'd done that," Satomi said, looking a bit spooked. "And, and you're okay with that?"

Satsuki replied that she was not.

"Well, then, m-maybe I should operate the vehicle and -"

Something seemed wrong with Satsuki's face. Satomi struggled for a moment to recognize what was wrong, before she realized that the chef was frowning. Not in annoyance, but anger. "No one flies my ship but me," she said.

"... okay," replied Satomi, thoroughly intimidated.

Satsuki's frown lifted, and she quietly thanked Satomi for understanding and tolerating her stubborness. The mad scientist just nodded politely as she was led to the controls for the other major system that Chao had installed on the Chao Bao Zi.

* * *

"Okay, how about this, we slap Akira's face a few times to get her angry, Ako zaps her with her needle -"

"In the butt," supplied Ako.

Chisame continued as though she hadn't been interrupted. "- and she tears a hole in this thing's side."

"I'm willing to try it," Akira said hesitantly.

Negi shook his head. "The Cancel will nullify the enhancement magic on Akira-san, and all she'll do is hurt her hands." At least, he thought, wondering at what would happen if the Cancel was applied to a nereid, if that was in fact what Akira was. He doubted it would be anything good.

"This is nuts!" Yuna shouted as she shot down a few drones. "There's open doors high up on this so it can launch all this crap, so why don't we launch ourselves into one of them? Setsuna can fly up and -"

"I don't think they're as open as they look," Yue noted as she did some curative magic on Emily, who'd gotten too close to a demon who responded to being killed by exploding.

"Correct," Chachamaru confirmed. "The egresses are shielded by electromagnetic fields that will roast anyone attempting to enter from the outside. Survival would be a possibility, but -"

"- you'd get swarmed by the tower's defenses," Yue guessed.

"One could hide a small force inside one's cloak, then pitch it through one of yonder egresses. Those within it might then emerge, defeat the defenders, and find a way of shutting down the aforesaid fields, permitting the rest of the company to join them," Kaede suggested quickly, then tossed one of her huge shuriken at a bird-like demon, neatly bisecting it.

"That could work!" Negi said enthusiastically. "But really, it would probably be safest if I was the only one in the cloak and -"

"Haven't you _yet_ learned about not taking stuff like that on yourself!" chorused Asuna, Chisame and Ayaka (who hadn't been there on previous occasions, but didn't want to see her Negi risk himself like that) as they loomed over him.

"But -"

"Master?" said Chachamaru.

"I don't think we can expect any help from her, Chachamaru-san," Negi said, fairly sure that he'd already observed that, but even under the circumstances, he felt that he ought to be polite about -

"No, sensei, I meant, Master is there, somewhat to my surprise," the gynoid elaborated as she pointed up into the sky.

Following her gesture, Negi could clearly see Evangeline moving quickly and gracefully through the air towards the tower, her cloak spread out behind her like a great pair of wings. He blinked. "What?" he said.

"I thought the curse stopped her from doing that sort of thing except on full moon nights!" Asuna said.

"That was my understanding as well," Chachamaru agreed.

"The barrier around the school is down," Negi said slowly. "But even so, there's not nearly as much ambient magic to - I don't understand how this can be happening ..."

And then Evangeline was in front of one of the open doors on the tower's side, and then moved through it with a sudden burst of motion. There was a faint burst of light from the force field on the portal, but nothing more than that.

"Now what?" Chisame said, voicing what everyone was thinking.

* * *

_Moons and Junes and ferris wheels,_  
 _The dizzy dancing way you feel_  
 _As every fairy tale comes real;_  
 _I've looked at love that way._  
 _But now it's just another show._  
 _You leave 'em laughing when you go_  
 _And if you care, don't let them know,_  
 _Don't give yourself away._

_I've looked at love from both sides now,_  
 _From give and take, and still somehow,_  
 _It's love's illusions I recall._  
 _I really don't know love ... at all._

* * *

There had been silence for a long while in the control room, as Arika kept trying to test the bonds holding her to the wall, leaving her with no time for speech. At first, she'd muttered about how they must be reinforced by the artificial Magic Cancel, and so prevented her from using her full, Royal Magic enhanced strength. But even that had stopped when Chizuru hadn't bothered to reply.

For her part, Chizuru spent these long moments thinking about how much she had to regret. Admittedly, she couldn't have known that Yukihiro-san wasn't her father, but that was a poor excuse for the hatred she'd always felt for someone who'd clearly only ever been as much of a pawn in the game, just as she was. Of course, that led her to think about Ayaka. She'd believed that she couldn't live with the disturbing elements of the girl's attraction to Negi-sensei, but had that simply been a way of pushing her away? Had her selfish wish to monopolize Ayaka's private attention really been a way of forcing things to an outcome that, she now realized, she didn't really want?

Regrets were all that she had, now. Very soon, she suspected, she wouldn't even have them.

The doors hissed open once more, and Chizuru braced herself for more offense from her mother's rapist, without bothering to look up. The sharp gasp from Arika, however, got her attention. She raised her head to see Evangeline, clad in black undergarments and a long cape, walking barefoot away from the elevator doors.

A slow smile spread across the little vampire's face as she saw them there, though it didn't come close to touching her red eyes. "Well, well, well," she said softly. "The day is finally starting to look up."

"Don't be more ridiculous than you have to be," Arika snapped. "The person responsible for this is, is also responsible for the destruction of your home, and -"

"He's responsible for alllll sorts of things, I'll bet," Evangeline said lazily as she wandered over to look at the monitors. "Hmph. Boya, I thought we discussed this. If you don't know what to do, just try something, anything. Don't ever choose to do nothing. Clearly, I made a mistake choosing him as my disciple ..."

"Perhaps he saw your arrival and doesn't want to mess up your play," Chizuru offereed politely.

Evangeline affected to notice Chizuru. "Oh, so you're here, too. That's nice. Family reunion time. Has he gone to get Sasaki, then?"

"What?" Chizuru asked, bewildered by the way that this conversation had turned.

"Sasaki Makie is my youngest living sister?" Arika said, being just a little quicker on the update. "The silly girl with pink hair? And you knew about this?"

Evangeline looked away. "I know all sorts of things that you'll never know," she said quietly then lifted her voice to continue. "The signs were obvious to see, if one knew what to look for. The subject just didn't interest me. Anymore than you do."

Before this conversation could further degenerate, the doors opened and Alladia appeared out of the shaft. The annoyed look on his face lasted just a moment before he sighted Evangeline, whereon it metamorphosed into an expression best termed as 'worshipful'. "At last," he breathed, as he slowly settled to one knee. "At last, I gaze upon perfection. Forgive me tardiness, my Queen."

"Uh ... right," Evangeline said. Whatever she'd been expecting, this wasn't it. "Alladia Autarkia -"

"None of those titles matter now," Alladia interjected. "Before you now is only Alladia, Alladia who has always, since his boyhood, burned with desire for you."

"... is he for real?" Evangeline asked Arika from across the room.

"I assure you of my sincerity!" Alladia said, cutting off anything that Arika might have said. "My father first spoke of you to me when I was but eight years of age, and showed me a picture of you. The fool thought you a failure, a dead end in our attempts to create the ultimate weapon. He was too blind to see you for what you are - the combination of all the feminine archetypes. Maiden, mother and crone in one person!"

"Right," Evangeline said, humoring the lunatic. "I really don't think I qualify for any of those. Definitely not a maiden, certainly not a crone, and never gave birth -"

"Ah, but that is the genius. By becoming nosferatu before your first menses, you have stayed a child forever, and so eternally a maiden, regardless of the state of your body. And yet within you is the wisdom and experience of the crone. And as for motherhood, many are the tales of the dark magi who studied with you, whom you guided in the paths of power - and more than one of them spoke of you as ... 'Little Mother'," he said, with the last words clearly being savored.

"They did?" Evangeline said blankly.

"They did," Alladia confirmed. "And as I read their accounts, I knew that you were the only woman in either world who would ever be worthy of my love." He rose up, then, and for a moment it looked as though he was about to rush towards her, but held himself back. "All that I have done has been done for the sake of this moment, when I would stand before you and offer you my hand. Together, we will wreck the world and build a new one on its ashes, one where you will be forever Queen of Night, and I, your humble servant, King of Day."

Evangeline stared at him. After a moment, she sighed. "Damned if that doesn't sound kind of tempting," she mused aloud. "What about them?" she asked, gesturing towards Arika and Chizuru.

"They - along with my third daughter, whom my idiot hirelings have failed to capture," he added savagely, before continuing smoothly. "- are to be your wedding feast. To celebrate your return to power, I offer you the best that I have, as Tantalus to Zeus." He bowed.

"Wow, that is reallllly tempting," Evangeline said, nodding slowly as she wandered over to look up at them. "I mean, after all, you always sort of pissed me off, Naba, with your perpetual good humor and cheerfulness. And then there's the bruise you gave me a while ago when you slapped me. People shouldn't really expect to get away with that sort of thing."

"I'm sorry you feel that way," Chizuru said, closing her eyes and preparing to bid farewell to her life.

"And you ... well. The whole world knows how much you grind my gears," Evangeline continued, looking up at Arika.

"So much for not killing women and children, then," Arika replied, glaring down at her.

"It was always more of a guideline than a code, as such," Evangeline said idly.

"If you expect me to beg for mercy, to ask you to step away from this path, then whatever you might know, you know nothing of me. I will never ask you for help," the former queen continued fiercely.

"Actually, that's about what I would expect of you," Evangeline noted, meeting her glare steadily. "But it really doesn't matter, because even if you could get past that pride of yours to ask for help, I have no reason to give it to you. I have no reason to help you."

For a moment, they stared at each other. Arika's brow furrowed. There was something in her words, something familiar, but she couldn't quite remember ...

_So she asks me why I helped her, and I said -_

"I don't need a reason," Evangeline quoted, and turned to throw a six-foot javelin of ice right through Alladia's chest.

Alladia stared down at the javelin sticking out of him, and opened his mouth. "Again?" he gargled, just as a fountain of blood spewed forth from his mouth, and then slumped forward in death.

"Well, that was disturbingly easy," Evangeline mused, watching the homonculous quickly decay for a moment, before she turned her attention to the binders holding Chizuru against the wall.

"There are more of him," Arika snapped reflexively before she glared down at Evangeline. "The curse on you is broken. How did that happen?"

Evangeline neither responded to the query nor met Arika's gaze, as she freed Chizuru's feet first. It was relatively easy to do, once she figured out how the locking mechanism worked. "Okay, when I let your hands go, you're going to drop a foot or so, so be ready for that," she said to the taller girl before flying up to take care of those locks.

"Answer my question," Arika demanded.

"Would you like to stay hung up like that for the rest of time?" Evangeline replied, still not looking at her as she got the lock on Chizuru's broken hand off first, allowing her to bring it back down against her stomach. "Ready?" she asked the girl.

"Ready," Chizuru answered.

"I would not like to stay here," answered Arika. "Now answer my question."

As she released the lock, and Chizuru landed on the ground fairly gracefully, Evangeline finally whirled to glare at Arika. "Use your bloody eyes," she hissed. "There, on the monitor, you can see the boya. You can see Chisame-chan and the damn iinchou. Who can't you see?"

Realization settled on Arika's face like frost on a window pane. "You bitch," she said softly.

"Damn straight," Evangeline replied, and proceeded to release Arika from her bonds too, with much less in the way of warning.

It didn't matter; Arika dropped to the floor with even more ease than Chizuru had shown, before whirling to glare up at Evangeline. "This will not go unanswered," she promised furiously.

"I look forward to your attempts to answer it," Evangeline replied, bitterness dripping from her words. "It is such a relief not to be dealing with people who insist on thinking I'm a good person underneath it all!"

"Are the two of you just about done posturing?" Chizuru asked, raising her voice for the first time. "Because we might want to try getting out of here before -"

The elevator doors flung open, and another iteration of Alladia, this one stripped to the waist with slime on his face bounded out of it, green eldritch light glowing in his hands. "You dare to reject my offering?" the mad king howled. "You dare reject my love!"

"Oh, please," Evangeline sighed, and prepared herself for battle.

* * *

Running across rooftops wasn't something Makie had ever expected to do. (Parts of it did seem a little familiar, but she decided not to examine that too closely.) Fortunately, the buildings in this area were pretty closely packed together, so she didn't have to make ridiculous leaps between them. It was still a little surprising how far she could leap, though. Rhythmic gymnastics wasn't about such maneuvers, after all, and she didn't think she was drawing on the pactio to augment her strength or speed.

Very mysterious.

It was almost as mysterious as her companion, who hadn't said much of anything after their introduction, other than to give her directions on which way to run. Makie found herself wondering why the other woman had decided to stick her neck out the way that she had, even though she was grateful. But there wasn't really a delicate way to ask that question, was there?

They paused to catch their breaths, and Makie looked over the side of the building down to the street below. The sight was horrifying. Takane, along with Mei and Nutmeg and a few of the school's teachers, were effectively pinned down by a group of mechanical creatures. The stalemate had been going on for a while now, judging by the mechanical shells that were piled up around the defenders.

"Should we maybe help them?" Makie asked 'Tomoko'.

The other woman had started shaking her head even as the question started to leave Makie's lips. "If you go down there, you might help to even the odds. But eventually, the people who are chasing you will realize where you are, and come after you, putting those people in even more danger than they already are. It's better not to involve other people in your problems, even if they aren't of your own making."

She couldn't help herself. "You involved yourself in mine," she pointed out.

The woman's eyes went distant. "Yes, but I'm one of those annoying blood type B people who go around sticking their noses in where they don't belong," she said; the toneless quality of her voice made the reflective look on her face seem very strange.

"I like people like that," Makie told her.

In response, she let out a soft 'heh'. "Come on, break's over. It's just a little further to your safe place," she told her, and then they were running again.

Sure enough, it was just a few more buildings over that they spotted the Chao Bao Zi on the ground below. Makie could see Ku Fei and Mana dealing with the last of about a dozen demons as they arrived, leaving the plaza where the streetcar was currently parked clear.

"Better get you down there in a hurry if you don't want to miss your train," 'Tomoko' told her, before quickly grabbing her around the waist and leaping out into the air above the plaza. She came down hard not far from where Mana had just double tapped a demon, and the shootist whirled to see what had just arrived.

And then Makie saw something she'd never expected to see in her life. Outright panic on the perpetually composed face of Tatsumiya Mana. "You?" the mercenary shouted. "What are you -" And then she had her twin pistols up and pointed right at them. "Step away from her, now."

Makie, moderately freaked by this turn of events, obligingly stepped away from the other woman. "Tatsumiya-san, it's me! It's Makie!" she told her, wondering whether she might have been exposed to some sort of weird psycho-gas or something.

"I know who you are, I'm not talking to you, Sasaki - stay the hell away from my classmate, you!" she yelled at 'Tomoko', who had started to raise her hands in what looked like a calming gesture to Makie.

"She's an innocent, Tatsumiya," the other woman told her. "She's not seeing what you are. You're looking well, incidentally."

"I'd like to remain so," Mana bit out. "Sasaki, please head for the car, I think we're about to lift off."

The order grated on Makie's nerves. "Excuse me, but I think I'm going to thank the person who helped me out of a real jam, first." She turned to look at 'Tomoko'. "I'd like to thank you for your help, Tomoko-san, but I don't think it's right to do that to a fake name."

The other woman blinked, and smiled. "So you guessed, then. I'm impressed."

"Why is Tatsumiya-san so frightened of you, anyway?" Makie asked quietly, trying to make sure that the subject of her query couldn't hear it.

"Because unlike you, she's not an innocent, and so she doesn't see what an innocent would see."

"Ahhh," Makie said, nodding. "Because she's not innocent, she sees things that aren't there."

"Actually, it's because you're innocent that you see things that aren't there," the woman told her, smiling faintly. "But that's not really important. Anyway. My name, not that it matters, is U-"

Before the word could fully pass her lips, the thrusters on the Chao Bao Zi began to spin up, drowning out the word. Makie turned to look at the train car, somewhat annoyedly, then turned back to ask the woman to repeat herself.

She was gone without a trace.

Makie felt Mana's hand on her shoulder. "Come on," the mercenary told her, sounding a lot calmer now. "We've got to go now if we're going at all."

"Tatsumiya-san?" Makie asked as they ran for the car. "What did you see when you saw her?"

"... good little girls don't need to know such things," replied Mana, wondering, as she had the first time she'd seen that woman, how someone could walk around with a thousand swords stuck through them.

* * *

"You know," Misora mused philosophically, "it's just occurred to me that maybe not dying a virgin isn t much comfort when you re, you know, actually about to die."

Cocone sent a bundle of mildly stunned, terrified agreement.

"I mean, not to say it wasn t really, really good," Misora continued almost calmly. Cocone growled another affirmative. "But you know, when you re about to die, your brain thinks stupid things like how I could have spent all that really, really good Cocone-luvin time at the track working on getting faster, or maybe learning how to use a gun - and illegally buying a gun - or even, and I can t believe I'm saying this, studying new spells and working on my magic."

Cocone nodded in agreement.

They all took another moment to look at the circle of tanks and demons they'd stumbled into, who all basically had a look that said, _Wow, I can't believe someone was actually stupid enough to run right at us_ on their faces. Even the tanks, and they didn t even have faces. And unfortunately, Misora's little magical Artifact boost seemed to have run out, else she d have used that cool vibrate to become intangible trick she d learned while using her boosted shoes. The back of her neck was still wet from the orgasm Cocone had had when she'd done it.

"Cocone-chan, I just want you to know, I love you, I've always loved you, and my life has been complete ever since I met you," Misora whimpered, clutching the smaller girl to herself and doing her best to interpose as much of her body between the big scary things and Cocone as possible.

"I love you too," Cocone said quietly, holding Misora's torso tightly.

The first demon began to stalk forward, obviously savoring the anticipation. Others began following its lead, flexing their claws and licking their chops as they moved. Misora twitched in horror as she saw the tails of many seem to split apart and become masses of tentacles.

"Cocone, I know this is totally the wrong time to ask you this, but -" Misora burbled, trying not to think about the tentacles. Unlike the popular image of such things in anime, these were barbed and claw tipped. Judging from the expressions of the demons, however, they were nonetheless intended to be used for the same thing.

"What?" Cocone asked quietly.

"Will you marry me?"

Cocone stared at her, silent. For some reason, Misora figured that was because she'd been shocked out of having anything to say rather than habitual silence.

"Cocone-chan?" Misora prompted. "Not to rush you or anything, but -"

"Yes."

Misora suddenly felt very much at peace. She hugged the girl tighter as the demons came within ten feet. "Would it be wrong of me to say I can now die happy?"

Cocone hugged her tighter, a small smile on her face.

And now the demon loomed over them.

"We're doomed," Misora said philosophically. "Only a Deus Ex Machina can save us now."

And that was when the frozen turkey fell out of the sky and slammed onto the demon, which then fell over, totally unconscious.

Everyone stared at the frozen turkey. The thermostat shoved into it fell out with a cheerful little ding! .

Misora blinked, then pinched herself. "Huh? Am I secretly Sakurako after suffering a traumatic rape incident that made me disconnect from reality and broke my mind, resulting in my thinking I'm Misora? Because there's no way in hell I'm that lucky."

Suddenly, voices from above! The demons looked up fearfully as someone asked Makie why she'd used the turkey like that.

"Ah! Sorry Sat-chan! But it was the closest thing I could pick up!" Makie's voice replied.

"Let me handle this now, Sasaki. Turn around and cover your eyes."

"Um, okay."

There was a sudden hail of gunfire, and demons were scattering at the sudden hail of death from above. The tanks tried to orient on whatever it was, but were cut down as substantially more potent weaponry was aimed at them.

"Kasuga!" one of the heavenly voices called out, which Misora finally recognized as Mana's "You okay down there?"

"We're cool!" Misora managed to call out. Was that the Chao Bao Zi? Flying? "Where are you going? Maybe we can hitch a ride?"

"We're going to back up Negi-sensei," Mana called.

Misora did the quickest math she d ever done in her life.

(Mana) plus (flying-weapon-loaded Chao Bao Zi) equals safety. [(Misora plus Cocone) plus (Mana plus flying-weapon-loaded Chao Bao Zhi)] equals safety. Negi-sensei equals safety.

(Negi-sensei) plus (danger) equals (Negi-sensei in the middle of said danger trying to do something about it.)

(Misora plus Cocone) plus (Mana plus flying-weapon-loaded Chao Bao Zhi) divided by (Negi-sensei plus danger) equals hellish scenario.

"Actually, I just remembered someplace we need to be!" Misora said. "But, uh, can you point us where the church is? We're a little lost."

Mana gave her a bland look but pointed. "That way. I suggest you get on the rooftops. There were some tanks in that direction when we passed."

"Cool! Thanks Tatsumi!" Misora called out, watching with some relief as the flying train car began to hover away.

Cocone tugged on her sleeve. Misora looked down, blinking.

"June wedding," the loli said. "I wear the dress. We'll find you a nice tux. We'll adopt a child after a year, and first chance we get, we're moving the hell away from here. I have relatives in Mol Mol. We're going there."

* * *

This was the first time Chizuru had been up close to a major magical battle while still conscious. She decided if she had any choice in the matter in future, she'd bring sunglasses. Good ones.

Alladia was hurling deadly spell after deadly spell at the three of them, only to see them all shut down by the counterspells that Eva fired off as easily as she breathed. Or rather, as easily as someone else breathed, since she suspected that Evangeline had left breathing far behind her.

The vampire was easily tanking the fallen king's spells with one hand, while countering with her own spells with the other. Though impressive, the spells only seemed to equal Alladia's and that didn't really square with Evangeline's reputation. They also didn't seem to be doing much good. It took a while to realize, since Alladia's spells were blindingly bright (again, very thick sunglasses), Chizuru soon saw that Evangeline's spells seemed to disappear some distance from Alladia.

As she watched, he called up another spell that further scorched the floor around him before he sent it flying towards Evangeline, who effortlessly batted it aside. What had he invoked with that spell? Why was it affecting the walls and floor despite the artificial Magic Cancel? Chizuru went back over the words faintly heard ...

Photos? Doesn't that mean light?

She opened her mouth to shout a warning, but realized that Evangeline seemed well aware of the situation, if her frown was any indicator. "Clever," she said, sending dozens of magic arrows at the area around her foe, watching them describe a roughly spherical area centered on Alladia. "Instead of a mere shield, you've placed yourself within an Anti-Magic Bubble the dissolves all magic but your own. You haven't been reading the Epic Level Handbook, have you?"

"What in Hecate's name are you babbling about?" Alladia hissed. "Did you truly think that I wouldn't take the possibility of your betrayal into consideration?"

"Try certainty!" Eva snapped back.

"Indeed, I see now that was bound to be the case. You are as unworthy as all the rest. Only I am worthy of my love!" And he threw another spell, not light based this time, but crackling with fire.

"Resigned to a life of masturbating, are we?" Evangeline dispersed it just as easily. "Eventually, you're going to run out of energy, you know. Unlike me, you can't do this all day."

"Foolish vampire wench!" Alladia sneered.

"Did you really just call me a wench?" she yelled.

"I have taken that into consideration, as well. I tap the magical energy of my homonculi for my own purposes, and a new one emerges from the laboratory below every minute! I will never run out of power! I will outlast you, wench! I am the King of Day! Let your darkness wither before my majestic brilliance! Seek as hard as you are able! You shall not overcome my light!"

"He did it again!" Evangeline seemed more amazed than angry.

"Do you possibly know a man named Dynamis, father?" Arika said.

"Surrender! Bow to me, vampire, and I shall be merciful!"

"I bow to no one!" Evangeline snarled. Her foot stamped hard onto the floor beneath her, shattering it with the blow. It was guarded against magic, not pure kinetic force. "You are a brute, germ, but I am a monster. You think you're the first who's sought to trap me? There is a difference between brutes and monsters, speck. Brutes know only strength. Monsters ... monsters know cunning." With a daintiness and dexterity that had Arika blinking in amazement, Evangeline's toes picked up a head-sized chunk of debris and flipped it up to her now-free hand, no longer striking at Alladia with magic. "Let's get old-school, you arrogant, deluded whelp!"

Maintaining her defense, she threw the chunk at Alladia with an off-hand gesture. The chunk spun like a meteoric discus, streaking almost as fast as one of Eva's spells.

The move surprised Alladia, and he instinctively raised a hand to ward off the projectile, reacting to survival instincts more ancient than magical combat reflexes. The chunk slammed into his forearm full on, and a loud, bloody snap echoed through the air a beat before Alladia's inhuman howl of agony as both bones in his forearm shattered.

Evangeline laughed. "Mortals. For all your magic and power, you all react the same when someone throws a rock at you. " Her foot slammed onto the ground, tearing out another chunk. She threw it at Alladia. He barely managed to shield against it, and it shattered to dust on his shield. He tried to retaliate, but Eva threw another rock as he cast, and he had to use his spell to blast it apart. It fragmented, peppering him with debris, and he let out a hiss of pain as some hit his arm.

"Even with your Royal Magic, that won't be a picnic, " Evangeline purred as she slowly began to stalk forward, tearing out another chunk and throwing it. "Your arm is shattered, halving your casting ability. The fragments digging through your flesh must be agony. But you seem to be going into shock, so I expect it's starting to feel better -"

The distance between them shortened inexorably.

* * *

When the Chao Bao Zi hove into view above them, Negi let out a sigh of relief. Clearly, Satomi and Mana had made it to the restarant in time to help the chef get it in the air. "Setsuna, with me!" he yelled, then mounted his broom to take flight up to the flying car. Setsuna followed him, keeping an eye out for flying enemies while his were fixed on their target.

"Negi-kun!" Makie yelled from the cable car's window, waving frantically.

"Makie-san! And Asakura-san and Sayo-san, too!" he added, seeing them in there with her. "Thank goodness you're all right!"

"For a certain value of all right!" Asakura shouted, surveying the tower. "What the heck's going on, Negi-kun?"

"It's more of the same stuff as yesterday, I think!" he replied as he swept forward to speak into the car's control booth. "Satsuki-san, what did you mean by other systems?" he asked the chef, who was at the controls.

Satsuki looked uncharacteristically grim as she explained that he was about to get a demonstration of what she'd meant by that remark. She turned to look at Satomi, and nodded once.

Satomi drew in a deep breath. She couldn't see what Satsuki was so upset about. This wasn't violence, this was simply demolition. She wasn't trying to harm anyone. And unless there was someone behind the wall she was about to shoot, she wouldn't hurt anyone.

But what if there was?

She silenced the voice that asked that treacherous question, and pushed the firing studs of the Chao Bao Zi's twin guns.

A repulsor works by directing a stream of compressed and ionized air before it, then sending a stream of charged neutrons through this medium. At the time of this incident, the system's inventor had only theorized about using it as a means of propulsion, rather than as an offensive weapon. But Chao had seen what came from his ideas, and implimented them.

A pair of thunderbolts hit the side of tower, and its wall crumbled.

* * *

As the wall burst open, Alladia started in surprise, and once more instinct betrayed him. He turned, even as he called defensive shields to protect him from the debris and Eva's missiles. It was a mistep, and from the look of things, he realized it almost at once. But by that almost, it was too late.

The ground beneath her exploded from ruthlessly transferred kinetic energy as Evangeline streaked forward, claws extended. She moved not by shundo but by the mere inhuman force of her slender legs.

One claw slashed open Alladia's back in a spray of blood as another as the other dug its nails into his skull. There were cracks and pops as she dug into the bone, drawing back his head and fully exposing his throat.

"You want to have me, fool?" she whispered. "You wish to be together? Very well. Let me know you ... intimately."

Her free hand brutally pierced through the back of his rib cage, tearing through the front clutching his still-beating heart. Her other hand tugged further back.

Chizuru averted her gaze, but she knew the sounds alone would haunt her nightmares - in particular, the hiss of disappointment a moment later, as the corpse collapsed to rot in Evangeline's hands.

"This one was a homonculous, too," the little vampire muttered. "Where's the original?"

"For all we know," Arika replied angrily, "the original died with our kingdom, eighteen years ago. Your charming little antics are -"

"Magnificent," Alladia's voice issued from a concealed speaker somewhere in the room, as his face appeared on the last remaining monitor that hadn't been shattered by the magics exchanged in the duel. He looked strangely rapturous. "You would have been a perfect bride," he added, clearly directing this remark at Eva.

"I think it's pretty clear that ship has sailed, moron," Eva snarled in reply.

"I think it's pretty clear that he wouldn't bother to put an audio pick-up here," Arika sneered.

"I think it's pretty clear that you two should get a room," Chizuru mused as she headed over to the large hole in the wall. Sighting Negi flying near the floating Chao Bao Zi, she waved a bit frantically to attract their attention.

As Eva and Arika traded revolted expressions that they eventually directed at back of the youngest woman present, Alladia continued to speak. "Coward, you call me?" he said, clearly working from a script that Eva hadn't seen and so didn't bother to follow. "No coward I, but a king. Should a king face his foes when there are armies of his servants to do so for him?" His tone changed, then. "But rejoice, Maga Nosferatu, for you have driven me at last to an extremity I would have preferred to avoid."

"Rather than just wanking, you're going to try auto-" Evangeline started to ask, but the transmitted version of Alladia's chant interrupted her, and she frowned. "Wait a minute," she said. "That spell ... no, that can't be right, that spell doesn't work, it -"

"What is he doing?" Arika asked, appalled, as she watched Alladia start to melt. Not decay, as his homonculi did so rapidly when slain, but melt. His skin bubbled and slid off his frame, revealing the naked bone and muscle, which in their turn transformed into oozes that dripped down, dragging his liquifying organs with them as they went. The last part of him to remain solid were his brain and spine, with the still open eyes glaring out at them in a way that somehow suggested immense satisfaction, before they too oozed and fell from view.

"He got it to work," Eva said, clearly amazed. "He must have employed light magic in the design, that's why I could never ... wait, if he - oh no."

"Master! Mother! Chizuru-san!" Negi cried out as he flew right up to the hole. "What happ-"

"Get out!" Evangeline interrupted, roaring at the top of her lungs. "All of you, get out of here, now, before -"

Two things happened then. First, the edges of the hole in the wall began to shift and pulse, as though they were living tissue starting to heal the great gash shut. Secondly, the floor shifted, tilting slightly.

Just enough to pitch Chizuru, standing by the hole, out through it, faster than even Negi's enchanced reflexes could hope to catch her. She was too startled to even let out a cry as she plunged towards the ground.

Less than a second into her descent, though, a ribbon - one significantly longer, she thought, than regulation probably required - soared through the air towards her. Chizuru desperately reached out with her free hand to grab it, just narrowly managing to hold onto the last foot or so of its length.

Above, on the back of the Chao Bao Zi, Makie let out a shriek as the sudden weight on her ribbon almost pulled her off her feet. "Little help please!" she cried out, as Asakura and Ku Fei both quickly wrapped their arms around her to hold her in place.

Once she saw that Chizuru was out of immediate danger, Arika immediately leapt through the hole to land behind Negi, wrapping her arms around him in a tight embrace. "I am so sorry," she whispered into his ear.

"Eh?" he asked, startled. "Why?"

"I -" Arika paused as she saw Eva flying out of the hole without even a glance in her direction. She knew that she ought to tell him. He needed to know. But the battle wasn't over yet. Indeed, as she turned to look at the tower, she knew it had barely begun.

For the tower was shifting, and twisting, and bending ... and then, quite abruptly, it no longer resembled a tower at all, but a colossal humanoid form. One that she knew rather well.

"Now," said her father's voice from the colossus' mouth. "Now, let us settle this."

* * *

On the ground below, the rest of Ala Alba had watched the mid-air rescue in horrified silence, and then (for the most part, with Ayaka excepted) been distracted from it by the transformation of the tower into its humanoid form. In the process, its formerly jet black walls had lightened slightly, to the point where they were perhaps best described as slate grey. That wasn't the distracting part.

The colossus was anatomically correct.

As it happened, Haruna found her voice first. "I am never going to be able to draw the male nude again, am I?" she asked faintly.

Ordinarily, that would have prompted a snarky response from Yue, perhaps along the line of every dark cloud having a silver lining. At the moment, all she, as well as Nodoka and the other girls who had never been exposed to male nudity before this, could do was stare in disturbed horror up at the thing between its legs.

* * *

Misora outran the tank trundling after them, jinking left and right to avoid shells while Cocone shielded them from shrapnel. The ground shook. It has been doing that for a while now, but Misora just figured Negi-sensei had found who was doing this and they were exchanging epic handshakes. As they passed the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, Cocone let out a yelp of surprise. Concerned, Misora slowed to look around, and nearly tripped as she saw the reason.

"Holy shit!" Misora exclaimed. "That thing is huge!" A beat. "And so is the giant monster!"

* * *

"I'M IN DESPAIR! MY PENIS ENVY HAS LEFT ME IN DESPAIR!"

"I'll sue," Kaere drooled, staring.

"How symmetrical," Chiri agreed.

* * *

"It is official," Seruhiko said, very aware he was still clad in his boxers and resisting the urge to crouch or cover up. That would be a sign of weakness in the face of this. "The one behind this chaos must die."

"Agreed," Father Gendo said, resolving that if he ever built a giant robot, it would not have such a thing.

Caren hugged Kirei. "Don't worry, father, " she whispered. "I still like yours better "

* * *

"Scatter!" Asuna shouted suddenly. "It's going to start moving, soon, and its feet are going to - scatter!"

Sure enough, the colossus did indeed lift one of its feet and shift its posture so as to take a step forward. The girls promptly darted in various directions, all trying to move away from the prospect of being stepped on. Except for Asuna, who held her ground even as it became clear that the foot was coming down directly towards her.

"Okay," Asuna whispered. "I guess I'm a caltrop, then." And as the foot came down towards her, she thrusted the point of her sword upwards with all of her strength. The colossus let out a grunt of pain and flinched back, before coming down again just in front of her. The impact knocked her off her feet, but she she got a clear enough glance at the foot to see that it wasn't 'bleeding'. All she'd done was cause it some surprise and pain, not injury.

Up above, Negi was quietly freaking out. "It's immune to all magic, and now it's moving around. How does it do that -"

"He's merged his flesh and soul into the tower's stone," Arika told him. "I don't how that works, but -in any event, it's not immune to all magic, there's one kind that -"

"Light magic," Eva said, looking at her disciple for the first time since his arrival. "The kind you can't use, boya. Not anymore." Her tone was flat and emotionless. "I have a plan. You just need to keep it in check for about five minutes. If this doesn't work, you need to tell someone that light magic will take it out."

"Master, what are you going to do?" Negi asked frantically. "You can't use that kind of magic either!"

Now she looked away from him. "These last few months ... haven't been bad. That's all I have to say to you, right now." She looked down, watching the Chao Bao Zi lower itself and its lone dangling passenger safely to the ground. It only took a moment to spot Chachamaru, approaching one of the colossus' feet with her arm blades out.

_Chachamaru,_ she sent, using the abilities of her doll contract for the first time in quite a while.

_Master,_ the gynoid replied, halting her charge. _What is your command?_

_This may be the last order I will ever give you,_ Eva sent ... and having said so, found herself at something of a loss to decide what it should be. _Live,_ she decided at last.

And with that last command, she turned and began to fly up and away.

_Can't use that kind of magic?_

_Nothing is ever that simple. There's no rule that says that shinso and other creatures of darkness can't learn that kind of magic. It can be used to harm as well as heal. It was power, and I wanted to have all the power there was._

_Knowledge is never harmful. Corruptive, yes, I will grant you. But simply learning to cast a certain spell will not ever hurt the one who learned it._

_Using it is another matter._

_It's not a matter of can't, with me. It's a question of, can't safely. If I use such spells, I will harm myself. Since I don't want to harm myself, I don't cast those spells._

_And so here I am, at the end of the journey that began not too far from here, that day when you cast that random incantation on me. I am soaring up, up higher than I have been wont to fly in the past, as high as Chao flew for her battle with your son. And when I reach my apex, I will cast a random incantation that I've developed over the years, a few odd moments at a time. What goes around, comes around, I suppose._

_Why am I doing this?_

_I regret nothing. I am not atoning for anything. Every vile deed I have ever done has been born of necessity, or was thrust on me unwilling, from the massacre I perpetrated in the moment of my awakening as a shinso, to my most recent murder._

_So then why?_

_Only to you, who are not actually present, but who have never been far from my thoughts in all these long, lonely years, will I admit the truth._

_I do this for love._

_I love this place. I love the people here. Now that I can leave, I am faced with the fact that there is nowhere else I want to go. Now that I must leave, I only want to stay. I love my classmates, I love my teacher. I love the late nights spent playing go with the old man. I do_ not _love your wife, but she will, I am sure, live with the loss._

_And yes, I love you._

_I wish I loved myself._

"What's she doing, running away?" Haruna shouted as she ran behind Nodoka, who'd started to use her knowledge of Evangeline's true name the instant the vampire began to fly upwards.

"No," Nodoka said softly, staring up in wonder and horror. "No, she's not."

At the same time, across the courtyard, the Chao Bao Zi descended towards the ground with Chizuru still dangling from Makie's ribbon. On the ground beneath it, Ayaka stood and gazed up. "Drop!" she called out, holding her arms out. "I'll catch you!"

Chizuru looked down, understandably skeptical about this notion.

"I have a pactio now, I can do stuff like this!" Ayaka insisted. Then, with a catch in her voice, she asked, "Or do you just not trust me at all, anymore?"

_How manipulative can you get?_ Chizuru thought wearily ... but also, she had to admit, fondly. And with that thought, she let go of the ribbon and dropped down into Ayaka's waiting arms, promptly knocking her off her feet in the process. (The loss of the weight on the other end of the burden also had Makie, Asakura and Ku Fei falling back onto their backs as well.)

"See?" said Ayaka as Chizuru lay on top of her. "I can do that sort of thing easily."

"You should be more careful," Chizuru replied. "Asuna-san wouldn't like it if you got hurt."

"Forget about Asuna!" Ayaka demanded. "Are you all right?"

Chizuru stared down at the girl she knew perfectly well that she would always love, no matter what. And it was clear, now, that that love was, as she'd suspected, not limited by the fact that it was forbidden. _Let's see. Nagi's mother was my half-sister, so I'm her ... half-great-aunt? Except that since the mother of Nagi's mother's was my half-aunt ... oh forget it._

"I am now," she answered, and kissed Ayaka deeply. And for a while, the problem of the gigantic colossus stamping around the boulevard went away.

At least, for them. Just about everyone else was focused on attempts to do some damage to the thing. The party's melee specialists had followed Asuna's lead in trying to assail it, but their attacks, even Setsuna's Sica Shishikuro, were like pinpricks to Alladia's new form. However, he was too slow to swat them. The effect was overall like a few dozen ants attacking a human being - not nearly enough to menace him, but too few and too quick for him to squash.

And then, its precious cargo delivered, the Chao Bao Zi flew up to start raining repulsor blasts towards his face. With a snarl, the colossus started to swing its fist up towards the cable car, having finally met an opponent big enough for it to hit.

* * *

Misora ran, firmly focusing on where she was putting her feet. The way was easier going now. Apparently even the demons were feeling intimidated by the display. Misora had passed a tangle of them slumped forlornly on the ground with Kaede's aunt Mido reassuring them that size didn't matter, and letting them prove it on her.

The church finally came into sight. There were a lot of fallen demons and the shells of tanks around it, in some places five deep, giving her some cover. There were a lot more still active though, and apparently the tanks left were loaded with heavier armor, because they were doing better at resisting magical attacks. Thus, the defenders were needing to be more ... direct.

Misora spotted her fellow nun Rosette showing her membership in the pistol-shooting club as she charged in guns blazing, her youkai boyfriend Chrono, no longer in his usual Cute Shotaro Boy form, tanking for her while her Ministra Azmaria supported them with spells. Misora dodged, jinked and hurdled, using every trick she'd ever picked up to finally reach the church

And neatly fell flat on her face as she saw Sister Shakti in her underwear being tended to by Ikari Yui. "You're late, Kasuga," the senior mage said in annoyance.

"Hey, give me a break!" Misora whined as she let Cocone off to help with the healing. Yui-san was good at first aid, but quite frankly sucked at healing magic. She was nasty in a rugby game though. "I had to run across campus with a passenger!" Inspiration struck her. "Besides, I helped acquire important information on enemy deployment!"

Shakti rolled her eyes. "Well, now that you're here we're sure to defeat the enemy now. You'll just wave your hand and they'll all be defeated." She was having a really bad day, or else she'd never have said this.

Misora was slightly annoyed now. Clad in her red underwear instead of her habit, Sister Shakti didn't look as intimidating. She was actually kinda ... but no, she shouldn't think that, she was an engaged woman now. "Give me a break!" She waved her hands at the demons. "It's not like I can just - "

* * *

At last, Evangeline reached the apex of her flight, and looked down at her target. One last, wholely unnecessary, deep breath ... and then she began to chant. "Lic Lac La Lac Lilac," she said first, as ever, and then began to speak in Greek.

The spell gathered up all the left-over magic that had been shed in battle so far that day. No matter how efficient the spell-caster, there was always some wasted. Indeed, given how sloppy most magicians these days were, so much was wasted, and so little used. Why in her day ...

But that was a distraction she couldn't really afford. The problem wasn't the magic she was gathering, it was what came with it. The magic she gathered up was utterly imbued with the emotions of those who had casted it. Their fear, their hope, their passion. Much of this would have been appetizing to the little vampire, but she had to cast away anything that wasn't utterly positive.

What was left was agonizing to her. So much love, so much hope, so much faith, so much desperate will to live. She gathered them all up in her hands, feeling them burning, almost, and shaped them into the ultimate weapon.

With lips that were almost paralyzed by pain, she spat out the last words of the spell. " **Astrofeggia Diakopths!** " _Here I am, probably sacrificing my life so that all of them can go on living, _she thought, not angrily, just tired. _Am I walking in the light now, you great big___ dope?

* * *

In a cavern deep beneath the earth, a shadowy form lifted its head from the bier on which it rested, and spoke a single word into the darkness.

"Yes."

And with the last of whatever energy animated it, the form lifted a gnarled staff and moved it through the air before collapsing once more.

* * *

Quite suddenly, she felt something shatter inside of her.

_Oh._

_Oh, Nagi, you magnificent bastard._

_You weren't talking about the infernus scholasticum, were you?_

Then there was only silence. And the vampire called Evangeline died gracefully after seven hundred years.

* * *

With a roar, a mass of pink light roughly the size of a small building slammed into the colossus' torso, essentially annhilating it. The arm that it had been swinging up towards the Chao Bao Zi started drop, narrowly sliding under the cable car instead of impacting it, before twisting like a helicopter rotor blade towards the ground. So too with its other arm, as well as the head formerly perched atop the torso. But there was enough time, barely, for those who had been attacking the monstrosity's legs to get out of the way of the falling body parts.

The head's eyes still glowed for a moment, and though its facial features were as immobile as rock, they nonetheless managed to convey confusion. Then the light went out forever.

"Incredible," Negi murmured from his position in the sky, turning to look up where his Master had cast down that awesome spell. He started to see that she was descending rapidly, and in an uncontrolled manner. His first impulse was to fly up and try to match her velocity so as to catch her.

"Negi," said Arika, behind him. "Negi, there's something -"

No, that wouldn't work; he had a passenger, and he couldn't very well ask his mother to get off. So there was only one real option, and he almost chuckled at the notion. The very spell he'd cast on his first day here, to slow Nodoka's fall. He began casting at once.

"Negi," Arika said forcefully. "There's something that you need to know before you -"

"Not now, Mother," he answered, just as forcefully.

He didn't see her face go white, as though she'd been slapped. He didn't see her eyes close, nor hear a sigh escape her lips. His focus was solely on the person he was trying to rescue.

And then it was done, and her fall was slowed. He had a few precious seconds to spend before going up to catch her, and chose to spend them by turning around to look at his mother contritely. "I apologize, mother, but the safety of my students, all of them, comes first. Now what's the matter?"

And then she told him.

* * *

There was a brilliant burst of light and a deep, resonant scream. Then the giant monster began to come apart. Demons gave a cry of surprise as they started to dissolve away and tanks started going dead. Silence dominated.

Slowly, everyone turned to stare at Misora, who was staring at her hand like she'd never seen it before and was wondering if she gotten a demon trapped in it like Nube-sensei over at the grade school did. "Huh. It's never done that before ..."

Sister Shakti was unfazed. "Why didn't you do that sooner?"

Misora groaned. She just couldn't catch a break!

Father Kirei looked down as he felt a tugging on his Kevlar vestments, and found Cocone looking up at him. "Yes?" he said as his brain filled with the usual thoughts of loli-cide it had around young girls.

"Misora and I are going to get married, " Cocone said. "Can you do the ceremony?"

Kirei frowned. "I am a traditionalist, Sister-in-training Rosa. I believe marriage is a union between man and woman, and that homosexuality, pre-marital intercourse, condoms, and pedophilia are evil. And yet you ask me to condone an act that is three out of four?"

"Yes."

"Good, just getting your facts straight. I'll be happy to do it. Though you should really use a condom, make it an even four. After all, every sperm is sacred, and thus I feel compelled to do my part in seeing as many as possible are wasted."

Stare. "Misora and I are both girls."

"Ah, as to that, I have this catalogue of heathen Chinese magical products from Jusenkyou."

* * *

On the ground, a great deal of dust had been thrown up by the collapse of the colossus, neatly allowing a pair of figures to slip out of the back of one of its still-standing legs. They promptly split up, as neither wanted anything to do with the other after this debacle.

Chamo was already thinking of how he could spin this to his advantage. _Yes, I was in there, aniki,_ he'd tell him. _But I was really just spying on the bad guys, not selling you out! Run away? I was just laying the foundation for my undercover work, see? I'm just sorry that you had to do all the hard work. No, don't worry, sure I was in terrible danger, but that's just how I -_

And then, over the body of one of the fallen demons, he spotted a familiar face. "Chamo-kun!" Chachazero yelled out, her body stained with blood and ichor, with a huge cleaver in each hand.

"Oh, wow, Chacha, you would not believe the day that I've been having," Chamo started to say as he ran towards her.

"Probably not," she agreed, and promptly disembowelled him with a single slice of one of the cleavers. "Ah, I'm glad I got to do that before -"

And then all animation fled her as her doll contract expired with the passing of the other party, and the deadly doll collapsed across the body of her last victim.

* * *

The other figure fleeing from the ruins of the colossus quickly realized he was being pursued, and turned to look at his pursuer. Even the Royal Magic won't protect someone who does such things from putting a foot wrong, and so he tripped and fell to the ground, permitting his pursuer to catch up to him.

"I surrender," Alladia gasped.

"That's nice," said Asuna, lifting her blade up above her head. Her face was cold and without visible emotion.

"No," he said, clearly disbelieving. "Not you, you can't do this, not to me, I'm your father, and besides, I'm helpless, all my magical energy is gone, I'm surrending and unarmed, and I'm your father, and, and you're Japanese, you were raised this way, to think that a man can't live under the same sky as the one who kills his father, it's a contradiction for you to, you can't -"

"Maybe you didn't notice," Asuna said quietly. "But I'm a girl."

And then she brought the sword down, cleaving his skull, and most of the head and neck beneath it, in twain.

With a bit of difficulty, she pulled the blade out of the wreck that had been a man, and waited for it to decompose quickly, like the homonculi were supposed to do. Nothing happened, and it occurred to her that it was possible that nothing would.

"I guess you were the real one," she said softly. She hadn't expected to feel triumphant, but she expected to feel something. But she didn't. She felt nothing at all.

She turned around to look up, and saw Chachamaru flying up into the air, and Negi speeding away on his broomstick. She wondered what the matter was, and got ready to run after him.

"Asuna."

She stopped, and turned to look at Takamichi, who'd come out of nowhere to stand behind her with a grim expression on his face.

"We need to talk," he said.

"Okay," Asuna replied, a moment later. He'd led her over to the foyer of one of the buildings around the boulevard. "So talk."

"Yesterday, you told me, in so many words, that you were having sex with Negi. Right?" the former teacher asked, his face eerily calm.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. If you were planning on selling us out, then I definitely -"

"Asuna. You know me better than that," he interrupted.

"I thought I did," she said. "Can we get to the point? My little brother probably needs me."

Takamichi drew in a long breath. "If Negi is planning to continue as a teacher here at Mahora, then that can't continue. In the wake of my exposure, every teacher here will be under increased scrutiny. If they catch you, Negi will not only lose his job, but his hope of becoming one of the Magister Magi. It has to end."

Asuna blinked, then opened her mouth to try and say something. For a few moments, though, nothing came out. "Then we'll stop," she finally said, a faint note of hysteria in her tone. "It's just a few months until graduation, and then, then everything will be ..." She trailed off.

"You won't last a week," Takamichi said, not ungently. "And you'll get caught. And it will all go to dust."

"So what do I do?" she asked, angrily and desperately. "What should I do?"

"If you love something, set it free," he told her. "In your case, that means you need to walk away from all of this. With me, I hope."

She looked at him, confused.

"Yes," he said, answering her unasked question. "I've come to terms with it. You're not a virgin princess, and I'm not a prince on a white horse. I'm not even a very good knight. But I think that we can be good together, Asuna. Wherever you go, I hope you'll let me come with you."

Asuna swallowed, remembering the kiss, yesterday. Remembering how good it had been.

All right, she thought then, let's see how far he's willing to go. Aloud, she asked, "How badly do you want this?"

Takamichi blinked. "Uh, I -"

Not waiting his reply, she reached out and ran her hand down the front of his crotch, finding the hardness there. "Looks like you want it pretty badly," she said, as she rubbed the bulge for a moment, then moved her hand up to the fastener of his belt.

"Well, yes, I do, but, well, I'm not sure about doing it here and -"

"Negi does it wherever I want it, whenever I want it," she lied. They'd only ever done it in his room. "Maybe you're just scared that you won't measure up," she said, and then reached up to kiss him, hard, even as she got the belt undone, followed quickly by the zipper. Asuna pulled back from the kiss, a trail of saliva briefly linking their mouths until she pulled him out of the boxers he wore under his pants, then went down to take him in her mouth.

She paused briefly, in mild panic, when she got a good look at what she had in her hand. It was significantly bigger than the largest one she'd ever seen or had inside of her before this, which was in turn signifcantly bigger than Negi's. It was big enough to make her reconsider this whole idea. But she couldn't back down now, and so she quickly bent forward and sucked him towards the back of her throat. At least she could take comfort in the fact that it tasted better. Maybe he'd had a shower more recently than Yuna's dad had.

Takamichi groaned as his hands reached down to take her head in his hands as she bobbed back and forth. They bumped up against the bells in her hair, the bells he'd bought for her when she was only a child. Despite the obvious associations, he didn't pull away from them.

Okay, let's push on that, Asuna thought as she pulled back to look up at him, jerking him with her hand. "Remember braiding those into my hair all those times? Were you having dirty thoughts about me when you did that? Were you?"

"Yes," he answered hoarsely. "Every second of every day we spent together."

"Perv," she sneered. "Lolicon. Good thing I'm a sick bitch, too, or you'd be in real trouble, saying things like that to me."

"Don't, don't say such things about yourself -" Takamichi started to say.

"Or what?" she snapped, tightening her grip on him enough to make him gasp. "Okay," she continued after a moment, standing up, lifting the hemline of her skirt up and tugging aside her panties. "Now I want you to stick this big, hard cock into my moist, juicy cunt, and if you stop even once, no matter how much I cry, I'll know that you're nothing but a wuss. Got it?"

"Got it," he said, then grabbed her hips and mounted her on him as he leaned back against the wall. She felt herself being opened up further than she had ever been, and bit back a scream as she settled down on him. But he didn't stop, and then the pain was eclipsed by the rush of satisfaction as his length caressed her walls.

"Oh, yeah," she said, rocking up and down, back and forth on his hips. "Yeah, you like this. You like it when I cheat, don't you? Well, then, you're gonna love it when I cheat on you."

"I, don't, mind," he huffed.

"Oh, you don't mind? I'm gonna be doing it with boys, girls, the occasional dog ... if you buy me a pony, _I_ won't ride _it_. No one in the neighborhood's gonna be safe. Not even any children we have. Not that they'll be yours, but then you don't mind, do you? Well, do you?"

"No," he said, as he turned them around and slammed her back into the wall. "I love you, so whatever you do is okay with me."

"Oh yeah?" Asuna hissed, enjoying the sensation of being pounded against the wall. "Well, I don't love you. I'll never love you. I'm just using you for the sex I can't get from Negi, and you're not even, even very, g-good at thaaat!" she lied some more as he brought her to climax.

"I don't mind," he said. "That's about what I deserve." And with that, he pushed once more and spewed up into her.

Shit, she thought. "Fine," she said. "Now get down there and lick up what you just dirtied."

He did.

* * *

Negi rode his wand down to the ruins of Evangeline's cabin, with the resort still standing there. At the bottom of the stairs, he found Nekane's corpse.

He hopped off of the flying staff before it had quite settled down, leaving his mother to drop the rest of the way, though she landed easily and caught the staff before it hit the ground. He paid her no mind as he ran up to the body.

The bite mark on her neck spoke eloquently of the cause of death. He could at least be grateful that someone had closed her eyes so that he wasn't treated to the sight of her staring endlessly up at the afternoon sky and seeing nothing forever.

Slowly, he reached out, hoping to find some warmth there, some hint that it was all just an illusion. He touched her cheek, and felt the chill of death there.

"No," he whispered.

"I tried to tell you," Arika said softly, behind him. "I truly did try."

"Negi-sensei," said Chachamaru, from behind both of them.

Arika turned quickly, Negi somewhat more slowly. She was hovering just a bit above the ground, holding Evangeline's limp body in her arms.

"She won't wake up," Chachamaru said, her voice expressing less emotion than it had in the first days of their acquaintance. "I do not know what to do."

Negi stared at her, stared at them both. "Keep her away from me," he finally said, as quiet as death.

"Sensei?" Chachamaru asked, then looked past him to see Nekane's body. Her eyes blinked. "Sensei, I did not know -"

"KEEP HER AWAY FROM ME!" Negi roared, then crumpled to the ground, holding his head in his hands as he curled up in a fetal position and wept.

Arika watched him for a moment. When it became apparent that all he was going to do was lie there, rather than trying to harm himself or others, she turned back to Chachamaru. "She's alive?" she asked shortly.

"Yes," the gynoid answered.

"Pity." Arika looked up at the resort towering above her, and then turned to look back at the wreckage of Mahora. "What a mess," she said at last.

* * *

The members of the group known as Iridia lay in a heap.

"What a battle, " SCM groaned. "I ache all over and not in a good way "

"I want to go back to the dorm but I can't seem to feel my legs," Anemoi agreed.

Overmaster rolled his eyes. "Oh, what are you complaining about? I did more than you guys!"

"Hey!" came a chirp.

Sereg looked up, adjusting his glasses beneath his slicked-back widow's peak. "Professor! Where have you been? We could have really used your help!"

The pink-haired Iridian smiled a bit maniacally, eyes too wide to be healthy, her pink hair blood-stained. "Oh, around. I was busy too. I actually played a vital part in the final battle!" Her axe dripped blood as if to prove her point, its innocuous appearance giving no hint of it's true, awesome power.

No one argued. Even SCM, the lunatic, had learned not to mess with the yandere of their group, who was nearly all 'yan-yan' and no 'dere-dere'. (Much later, when they heard about the condition of the corpse of the one responsible for the attack, they would all nod to themselves, sagely.)

For a moment they all just lay there. RT was using his Artifact to log in to TV Tropes and check on the forum thread he hung out at, reading snippets of fanfiction.

Bliss ...

"So, when will our avatars be done?" NL said.

"And the picture of Nelly for the cover of my doujin?" JT asked.

"I'M WORKING ON IT!"

* * *

Hito Nami, a perfectly normal girl leading a perfectly normal life, had been out visiting her family for the last couple of days. By the time she headed back to Mahora Academy, she found all train ways and highways leading to the school completely closed, with absolutely no explanation on the reasons. Cursing her luck, Nami had to sped several hours sitting with a large group of similarly stuck students and staff, including a rather disgruntled Nitta-sensei.

By the time she made it to Mahora, she was surprised to see several parts of the grounds reduced to rubble, smoking wreckage everywhere. The general mood of the students and faculty was sour and grim, and no matter who she asked, she got few if any answers. Puzzled, she erratically wandered across campus, helping some wounded and injured along her way, since she was a normal, good-hearted typical Japanese girl.

However, she couldn't rest until she found her beloved teacher and friends. Knowing them, if all of Mahora was caught in the clutches of so much despair, then they would be... the mere idea of it boggled her mind.

Much to her shock, she found the spot occupied by Class 3-F, the depressing, depressive, all of them but Kafuka moody to some degree or another, 3-F, to be the sole celebratory spot at the grounds.

"Oh, there you are, Hito-san!" Chiri greeted here. "Welcome back!"

"Welcome back!" Nami shouted. "WELCOME BACK? What kind of attitude is that, after this whole place is ravaged to the ground!" Naturally, it was logical for Nami, normal girl she was, to be outraged over such lunacy. "What the devil happened here?"

"Oh, not much," Kafuka laughed, slicing a piece of cake for her with one of Chachazero's knives, the lifeless doll laying at her feet. "We only had a mild case of visits by unfriendly demons, monsters, robots and soldiers, that's all! But it's all okay now! All those who weren't sent to a better world are currently making good friends at prison!"

"What." Nami was so aghast she couldn't even say it as a question.

Harumi bit her lower lip, hugging her sketchbook. "Oooohhhh, and we got such a lovely sight of giant uncensored male equipment! Now that Paru-chan's mostly off the H-Doujin biz, I'm going to make a kill with this imagery! No competition, lots of inspiration, a market full of depressed girls eager for entertainment to forget their woes! It's my golden moment, I'm sure of that!"

"You guys ..." Nami facepalmed.

"And to think, despite all that danger, and despite so much bloodshed, I escaped with my life again!" Itoshiki lamented loudly. "Not even a scratch on me! Why! If anyone deserved that, it was me! I'M IN DESPAIR! THE FACT THE UNIVERSE KEEPS GOING OUT OF ITS WAY TO PROTECT MY WORTHLESS EXISTENCE HAS LEFT ME IN DESPAIR!"

His sister Rin clung to him, smiling fondly. "You have so much to live for, oniisama..."

Nozomu blushed and whispered, "N-not here, Rin ..."

Kaere smiled and softly patted Nami's shoulder. "And you missed it all. You're such a fortunate girl! Nothing bad ever happens to you! I guess that's a good thing about leading such an ordinary life!"

Now that made Nami explode. Figuratively, of course, since she was, you know, just normal. "DON'T CALL ME ORDINARY!"

* * *

Elsewhere, Kaede moved slowly through the wreckage of one of the school buildings with an increasingly heavy heart. From all that she'd been able to find out, the twins had last been seen fleeing the attackers into this building, which had been demolished a few seconds later. She'd come here hoping to find them, or at least -

She hardened her heart. The path of the shinobi was the path of death, after all. And if they had fled from a foe too great for them to conquer, they had done the right thing. They had, after all, learned their lessons.

Kaede heard a shifting in the rubble. At once her kunai was in her hand. "Come out where I can see you," she said harshly, not allowing herself to hope. It was probably just one of the attackers, hiding out, nothing more than -

"Neechan?" asked a faint voice.

A few panic-stricken moments later, she had Fumika and Fuka out of the rubble that had covered them. By a stroke of fantastic, near-Sakurako-esque luck, it had landed in a pattern just right to shield them from further harm. They were bruised and rather traumatised, but not seriously injured.

"Are you dead too?" Fumika asked Kaede hesitantly.

"No, one is alive, as are you," Kaede answered brusquely, refusing to let the incredible relief she felt show on her face. They would never let her live it down.

"Are you sure? You could be like Sayo-chan, you know, and not always - yeow." Fuuka's speculation was cut off when Kaede reached down to pinch each of their cheeks.

"I really thought we were dead," Fumika mused aloud. "I even saw mom."

"... one was under the impression that your mother was still alive."

"I can dream, can't I?"

Kaede decided to let that pass unanswered.

* * *

What a day, thought Akashi Wataru wearily. He'd been lucky enough to avoid serious injury, unlike some of the people he'd been fighting alongside, but it had been a narrow thing. And of course, his reward for the hard work was more hard work, watching over the clean-up, when all he wanted to do was have a shower and a long sleep.

Preferably beside -

No. That had to stop. He'd made a promise to his late wife that he'd stop it, and he was going to keep that promise, or he'd never be forgiven by her ghost.

And then, quite suddenly, as he was walking the wrecked streets, he saw a ghost.

The girl's long hair, more blue than black, was all that he could see of her, aside from the uniform of one of the high schools. She was walking in the same direction that he was, facing away from him, and yet the resemblance was almost enough to stop his heart.

"Saeko?" he asked aloud, dumbfoundedly.

She turned, and as soon as he saw no glasses on her high-browed face, he knew the mistake he'd made.

"Oh," Kuga Natsuki said. "You." In much the same way as someone might say, piece of shit.

"Natsuki ... san," he said, quickly remembering to add the honorific, despite how startled he was. "I didn't know you were attending school here."

"I'm sorry," she said, clearly not sorry. "Was I supposed to keep you appraised of my movements? I thought you decided that you didn't want to be involved in my life." There was a mountain of sarcastic resentment behind her tone.

"It wasn't like that," Akashi protested. "Please, if you'll just hear me out, I can explain."

For a moment, the anger in her cold green eyes seemed to ease a bit, and he really thought she might listen to him. They'd be able to talk, and she'd understand why he'd done what he'd done, and why it had been for the best, for both of them.

And then of course it didn't happen.

"Dad!" he heard the voice cry out from behind him, and he turned reflexively to see Yuna running towards him, and when he looked back to Natsuki, the anger was back, in force.

"Are you okay?" Yuna asked him as she grabbed him from the side. "That was so completely messed up, I didn't even have ... uh ... who's this?" she asked, belatedly grasping the fact that he'd been talking to that girl over there.

"No one you need to know about," Natsuki said shortly. And with that, she stomped off, hands in the pockets of her uniform's vest.

"Who was that?" Yuna repeated, a bit more urgently to her father.

"Well, that's sort of hard to explain," he said weakly.

"... y'know," she said, letting go of her embrace of him, "when I said, get a girlfriend, I didn't mean, get one just a little bit older than I am! Cripes, dad!" She shook her head and started walking away muttering.

"It's not like that!" he protested.

He really couldn't win with either of his daughters, could he?

* * *

_Tears and fears and feeling proud,_  
 _To say "I love you" right out loud,_  
 _Dreams and schemes and circus crowds,_  
 _I've looked at life that way._  
 _But now old friends are acting strange,_  
 _They shake their heads, they say I've changed._  
 _And something's lost but something's gained_  
 _In living every day._

_I've looked at life from both sides now,_  
 _From win and lose, and still somehow_  
 _It's life's illusions I recall._  
 _I really don't know life ..._  
 _At all._

Having reached the end of the song, Negi finally allowed himself to fall silent as he lay on his back on the bunk in the school's infirmary. Most of the more serious cases had been transferred to hospitals in the town, leaving them open for those who suffered from exhaustion, like him.

"I didn't really understand that, but it had a very sweet tune," Asuna told him.

"It was one of neechan's favorite songs," he said, without looking up. "Her mother left her a record it was recorded on in her will, I think, and she'd play it a lot when I was just a baby."

"I'm so sorry, Negi," she said.

He was silent for a while, and then said, "So that's what that's like. It sucks."

"Huh?"

"Getting an apology from someone for something that isn't even remotely their fault," he said, still not looking up. "I'm sorry for doing that to you, all those times."

Asuna flushed. "That kind of defeats the purpose of the insight, you know."

"I know," he said, finally lifting his head to look at her, smiling sadly. "But that which we are, we are."

For a moment, they looked at each other. And then, simultaneously:

"Negi, I need to -"

"Asuna, I need to -"

And they broke off at the same time, blushing brightly. "You first," Asuna said.

"No, you," Negi replied.

"Okay. Negi, I'm leaving."

He blinked. "... what?"

"I ... I've been thinking about it, and ... well, it won't, won't be safe to stay here and keep doing this, after what happened with Takahata-sensei, will it? You'll need to slow things down, and the best way you can do that is if the biggest temptation is out of your way. So ... I'm leaving. I don't know where I'm going, but I can't stay here."

Negi stared, then, slowly, smiled. "It's funny ... I was, I was just about to say sort of the same thing, how we'd need to cool off for a while, but I wasn't sure how we were going to do that. You solved the problem, Asuna. It's very clever."

"Really?" she asked, startled by how well he was taking it.

He nodded. "Really. You're right. It's for the best. I know that everyone will miss you, though."

"I'll write," she said. "Every chance I get, I'll write. And someday, someday when it's safe, I promise that I'll come back."

"I will be waiting," Negi replied gently.

"And even, even if something happens and I can't," she continued, starting to tremble just a bit. "Even if that happens ... you will always, always be my teacher. My little brother. And my first love." She bent down over his supine form and kissed him, just once, on the lips, and then again on the forehead. And then she slowly backed away towards the infirmary door, never once taking her eyes off of him until she was out in the hallway.

And then she was gone.

Slowly, Negi let the fake smile fall from his face, and let out a sobbing breath.

_Asuna, I need to ask you something. Please stay with me forever._

"Fuck," he said quietly.

* * *

In another room a little bit further down the hallway, Nodoka slowly walked up to where Evangeline's still, silent form lay in a bed, unmoving, unresponsive. Chachamaru was out in the hallway standing guard over the room.

Only Nodoka knew what had happened, what payment the girl had offered, what reward she had been given.

Only she could make the decision that would allow her to keep it.

So she did.

* * *

"I'm sorry you are hurting, my son," Arika said to him, just a little bit later. "And I'm sorry that I'm about to add to your woes."

"What?" he asked wearily, then shook his head. "I'm sorry, that was very rude of me. What do you mean, mother?"

"I will be leaving, too," she told him. "You have responsibilities that keep you here. I do not. While you are teaching your students, I will be searching for your father."

"That's ... that's a good idea, mother. Someone should do that. The sooner he's found, the happier we'll all be," he said, again trying to hide the pain.

"I won't be leaving right away," she said, suggesting that she wasn't wholely fooled. "I think that a month will give me time to do the research, make my plans and gather the correct supplies. And besides, I will not leave you doubly bereft like this. But I think that the time of my departure will come more quickly than you realize, so you should be ready."

He nodded.

"I will also be spending that time helping you to organize your harem," she started to say.

"There's not going to be a harem," Negi interrupted.

"But -"

"No," he said firmly. "I will not ignore my Ostian heritage, but I will not embrace this part of it. A proper English gentleman does not have a harem. When the time comes for me to choose a, a permanent mate, I will choose one, have and hold to that one alone, and accept that I must break the hearts of others who would love me. I accept this as ... a necessary evil." The last words tasted like ashes in Negi's mouth, but he said them anyway.

"I see," Arika said, considering him in silence. "You have grown up, my son."

"I guess that I have, at that," Negi allowed.

"It looks good on you," she added, smiling gently. "Now, rest a while."

And with that, she also turned and walked out the door.

Negi slowly closed his eyes.

"Ahem. I'm sorry to ruin that exit," Arika said, returning quickly. "But you should know ... Evangeline has awakened."

Negi got out of bed and slowly followed his mother down the hallway. He honestly wasn't sure what he was going to do when he got there. Part of him wanted to scream and curse at the person who'd killed the only mother he'd ever known; but the upbringing of that very same mother figure told him to bottle up such emotions, to employ reason and calm, especially in dealings with women.

And whatever else the Master might be, she was surely a -

"I say again, who are ye all?" a familiar voice demanded from within the room. "And why do ye speak such heathen tongues at me?"

Negi blinked. At her angriest, Evangeline would sometimes let a bit of a Scottish burr into her words, but even when she and he were alone, she always spoke Japanese, never English ... the way that someone with her voice was speaking now. And to be specific, a fairly archaic form of the language.

He walked in to find Chachamaru trying (and failing) to calm Evangeline down, while Nodoka stood back with an apprehensive expression on her face. "Excuse me," he said, in English. "Is there a problem?"

She turned to look at him, and he realized that she was breathing heavily, another thing that never happened. "Who are ye?" she repeated, but sounded a little calmer. "I dinnae ken your accent, but at least ye speak a civil tongue. Who are ye and what place is this?"

"My name's Negi Springfield," he said slowly. "And you're at a, a place of learning called Mahora. Now, why don't you tell me who you are?"

"I hight Kitty McDowell," she answered, then looked around. "How came I to be here? Where are my ma and da?"

"Kitty," he repeated, not wanting to open that door just yet. "Not Katherine?"

The girl called Kitty stared. "That's, that's my christening name, indeed, but 'tis too fancy for general use. What manner of name is Negi? Be it short for Nigel?"

"It's a long story, Kitty," he said, avoiding adding a '-san' to her name with some difficulty. "Let me just ask you one more question, and then I'll start explaining things to you. Does the name Evangeline mean anything to you?"

She shook her head, promptly. "Another strange name, that," she replied. "Like the word evangelist? A Spaniard's name, perhaps?"

"I think it's French, actually," Negi murmured as he slowly sat down at the foot of her bed. "All right, Kitty, basically, what's happened is that you've just now woken up from a very long sleep, one that lasted for years. In fact, you've been asleep for so long, that I think the dreams you've had have probably replaced whatever memories you might have had of your life before you went to sleep."

"Eh?" Kitty asked, crinkling her brow. "Then ... do I no' live in a castle?"

"No, I'm afraid not," Negi lied smoothly.

"Then ... I dinnae know anything. It's all just a dream?" she asked.

"It's best to think of it like that," he answered.

"What's to become of me?" she pressed, starting to sound frightened again, as she had been before he arrived. "I dinnae know anything, anything at all!"

"It's going to be all right, Kitty," Negi promised her, smiling gently. "It doesn't matter if you know nothing ... because this is a school, and I am a teacher."

Arika quietly gestured for Chachamaru and Nodoka to follow her out of the room, leaving the two children to talk to each other. Once the door was slid shut, Chachamaru finally found her voice. "The Master is gone forever, isn't she?" There was unmistakable grief in her tone, but there was something else as well.

"Yes. Whatever broke the curse that turned her into a shinso also took away all the memories of those years," Arika said, not looking at Nodoka as she said it. "It's probably better this way -"

"It is," Chachamaru agreed. "The one thing she wanted most, the one thing she could never have ... was her innocence, again. And now she has it. And I will try to be happy for her." With what might have been a sigh, or perhaps a sob, the gynoid turned and walked away from the hospital room.

Arika watched her go. "You missed a spot of shattered gem on one of your hands," she said to Nodoka.

Nodoka did not look down at her hands, and indeed showed no expression of guilt whatsoever. "I don't know what you're talking about, Arika-sama," she answered smoothly.

"Very well." She smiled then. "You may yet prove to be a worthy match for my son, dear. Though you have quite a bit of competition ahead of you."

"I know that Chisame-san comes first in his heart," Nodoka said, calmly. "But I will not stop trying."

Arika coughed to hide her laughter. "Actually, that's not who I was thinking about," she said, casting a glance at the door. "But that's not important right now. Come now. Let's give them some room. Listening to private conversations is a decadent habit, and should be avoided if at all possible."

And they walked away.

  
**THE END**  
Of  
 **Decadent Habits**  



	37. Epilogue -- Chisame Redux

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is primarily the work of OverMaster.

"Mother, we need to talk," Chisame had said over the phone.

The last time her daughter had called, she'd started with those same exact words, in a very similar tone, and it had ended with Sora being slapped and Chisame leaving in a tearful dash into the rain. Hasegawa just knew it wouldn't end well this time, either. But she couldn't escape it. She had fled her own faults and their consequences for far too long, and now they had hit home in her daughter's life. So she'd simply take it all like a woman.

She prepared the tea, knowing it was the boy's favorite drink, and even made snacks while holding her tears back. Once, she had been known as "the lethal chef of Nekomi Tech", but practice and motherhood had made her an adequate cook, if nothing else.

She also called Morisato-sempai again, after so long, and asked him for his advice. He only sighed. "Sora, we always told you to be honest with her from the start."

"What's done is done. I need to know what to do now, Sempai," she still kept on calling him that, even years after graduation. "I am... I am just plain scared..."

He sighed again. "Hold on there. I'll go get Belldandy. She's much better with giving advice than I am."

Even Belldandy-sempai's advice, while sound and heartfelt, hadn't been that helpful this time. Then again, what could ever help, in such a hopeless situation?

"I'm bringing Negi-sensei and his mother," Chisame had added, somewhat reluctantly, and Sora had not had the willpower to protest.

"Sure."

That man's wife. His real soul-mate. Nagi's actual beloved.

Sora sat down to sob quietly as she waited. "Why did you have to love me, if you loved her more? We should have remained only friends."

No, she told herself, wiping away her tears. Then she wouldn't have Chisame. And Chisame would always be her pride, the only thing she ever did right. No matter what her daughter ever did, she'd always be her most important thing. Always.

The doorbell rang. Sora checked her eyes weren't too red one final time, breathed deeply, and walked stiffly for the door, opening it for them.

"Hello, mother." Chisame was wearing a simple black shirt with blue jeans, her tone much meeker and more humble than usual, as if savoring the bitter taste of shame beforehand.

"Hasegawa-san." The boy bowed. She had only met him once before, during last year's parents meeting. Back then, she had successfully hidden her mixed feelings upon meeting him, but now, having him so close, at her own home, she couldn't help but freeze in place. He was so much like his father. Only smaller, and more innocent looking. It pained her, just to look at him.

But seeing that woman for the first time pained her even more.

She was so tall, and so gorgeous, compared to her own small, ordinary, mousy self. Just by seeing her at long last, it made Sora immediately wonder how Nagi could have even noticed her, when he had such a woman waiting for him elsewhere. Never before had she felt so insignificant as she did under the even, quiet gaze of those mismatched eyes.

"Good afternoon, Hasegawa Sora-sama," the third visitor said. Even her voice was collected and powerful, a far cry from her own stammering, low and clumsy voice.

"Ah, ah, Arika-sama." She bowed back, unsure of how to react to the unexpected honorific coming from Arika's mouth. "I am, um, so very pleased to have you here. Please come in. You and your son are welcome here, I only regret not having more to offer you." The insincerity felt like a scorching knife twisting inside her, as the three of them came into the house, and she closed the door behind them.

She escorted them into the living room and gestured somewhat helplessly at the mismatched furniture. "Please, sit any-" Sora started to say as her three visitors quickly sat down around the square table in the middle of the room, one on each side. Chisame, then Negi, then the tall blonde queen. It was almost choreographed. "Ah, yes, that will be fine," she continued as she sat down herself on the free side of the tables

And then there was silence. Chisame looked as though she wanted to say something, but was clearly fighting barely concealed panic that kept her from doing so. Negi wasn't looking at Sora, instead looking down at his hands which were folded in his lap. Arika was quietly regarding Sora without a word, those strange, mismatched eyes revealing nothing.

It was probably contrary to dozens of rules of etiquette that she'd never mastered, but Sora decided that she had to take the initiative if this conversation was ever to get going. "Negi ... sensei," she said, rejecting -kun and -san quickly. "Thank you for always looking after my -"

"Oh god," Negi murmured in English.

"Please, no, no small talk, mother, I don't think I can take it under the circumstances," Chisame finally burst.

"I'm sorry, dear," Sora replied faintly.

"And no apol- no. No, this won't ..." She trailed off, shaking her head. Then drew in a deep breath. "I think I'm pregnant," Chisame said, eyes firmly closed.

That had not been anything Sora had been expecting, and she felt her jaw drop. "Eh?"

"I think I'm - I missed my last period, and -"

"Maybe, maybe it's just a little late," Sora interrupted, trying to put the best possible face on the horrid situation.

Chisame proceeded as though she hadn't heard this helpful interjection. "- and so I took a test and -"

"Those things are inaccurate."

Her daughter stole a glance at Arika's face. "This one isn't," Chisame said quietly.

"I see," said Sora, who did. A magical pregnancy test. Of course there would be such things. Of course there would. "I see," she said again, then turned to look at Negi, who was still looking down at his hands. "This must be very embarrassing for you, Negi-sensei, having to talk to one of your students' mothers about this sort of thing," she said, wincing inwardly at the implied insult.

And now it was Negi's turn to draw in a deep breath as he finally looked up from his hands to meet Sora's gaze with those eyes so like his father's. "Yes," he said. "But I'm not here just as a teacher. Or as Chisame's brother. I'm ..." He trailed off, lifting his hands up to rest them on the table as through trying to draw strength from it.

And Chisame, seeing it, rested one of her hands on one of his, in a gesture of unmistakable intimacy.

Sora blinked.

"Mother," Chisame said. "Negi is -"

"No." She could barely make the word out, as her eyes bulged in a nearly grotesque way behind her glasses. Her face had just become a pale masque, and her hands had clenched into fists.

All in all, she was taking it better than Chisame had expected. "Yes," the girl dared to reply, nodding only once, looking down meekly. "I'm sorry, Mother. But I've decided to have this baby. I don't expect you to approve, or even understand, but I can't deny my - "

"No!" Sora covered her ears, a scared young woman again. "Don't say that! Don't ever say such things! He's your brother, Chisame! And he's just a child! Please, I know you think I've failed you, but don't punish me like this! Think of yourself, and even of him! And you!" She turned to Arika, completely forgetting her earlier fear of the woman. "Y-You can't possibly approve of this, either!"

"I do," was the other woman's simple answer.

"Eh? Eh?" Sora blinked several times, not believing her ears. "No. What?"

And then, quite suddenly, the mousy insipid woman did what almost every woman does in defense of her progeny. She became a roaring juggernaut, surging up from where she sat on the floor. The look on her face prompted silent panic from Chisame and Negi. Arika did not even flinch as she stood up as well.

Sora stared up into the other woman's face and seething furiously. "Now listen, you, Mistress Queen, Princess, Duchess or whatever you may be!" she shouted. "I don't care if you have all the powers in the world, I'm not going to stand idly as you try to pull this, this crime against these children! Your own son, even! I don't know what your customs are like, but I know that your son was raised here on Earth, and I'm pretty sure he couldn't have reached this decision by himself at such a young age!"

"Mother, please!" Chisame tried to plead.

Arika lifted a hand. "Let her speak her mind. This is her home and her world. And you are her family."

"Exactly!" Sora sputtered with a rage she'd never imagined in herself. She turned to her daughter. "You are aware you're still under my care, don't you? That I could, right now, this instant, pull you out of Mahora and ship you off to a different boarding school on the other side of the country? And that I'd have every right to do so, to save you from this, this debacle?"

"Of course I know that." Chisame looked aside, at Negi, her cheeks red as her hand tightened on his. He immediately squeezed it in support. Her voice grew steadier. "And I would never hold it against you, Mother. But know this: the very second I'm of age to leave that school, I'll go right back to his side. No matter where could he be, no matter the distance or the dangers, I'll return to his side."

Sora grew paler, her hands trembling. "What -"

Arika placed a hand on her right shoulder. "Listen, please."

Sora shook the hand off as if it were coated with poison. "Don't touch me! What have you poured into my daughter's mind? Why did you - you - " She started crying, trying to reach for Arika's shoulders (or possibly neck) but her hands fell to her own sides instead.

"You show up at my house, our house, out of nowhere, and then dump this on me. I know I've made far too many mistakes to deserve happiness, but I don't want Chisame to fall even lower than I have! I'm so horribly sorry I ever stole your beloved, even if only for a while! But please, please, don't take my little girl away! She's the only thing I have in this gray, miserable life of mine!" She was begging now, hands lifted up and clenched in supplication.

"Mother," Chisame whispered. She'd never expected this.

"Hasegawa-san, we don't - " Negi began.

Arika placed her hands on the sobbing woman's shoulders, her voice comforting and smooth. "I have no grudge against you, Hasegawa Sora-sama. Regardless of what you may think. I believe Nagi loved you for a valid reason. Like your daughter, you are made of stronger steel than you ever would have suspected. You know who I am, and what I am capable of, even now. You know who my allies are, and what they could do to someone like you. And yet you stand up to me, without fear or hesitation. You are brave, and I can see why Nagi would see the precious worth in you."

The shorter woman shook her hands off again. "S-Stop it. It won't work. I won't sell my daughter for your cheap praise."

"Cheap?" Now Arika actually sounded offended. "Know this: I give no praise lightly. Nothing disgusts me more than lies made to flatter the unworthy. Your views may differ from mine, but they still merit respect. No doubt, they are far more socially acceptable; far more in this world or the other would agree with you than with me. And yet, this is not about my decisions or values. It is about those of your daughter, and my son.

"They are not children anymore, Hasegawa Sora. They are far too illustrious for that. They needed to grow up fast, as their destiny commands. Already, they have saved another world, and perhaps this one as well while doing so. Regardless of their short age, they can make their own decisions, and have settled for the one you have just heard."

Sora shook her head stubbornly. "Don't try to confuse me. Why do you do this to us? This is a horrible crime against nature and the sacred ties of blood!"

"Nature," Arika began, "must not dictate Man's fate. Because mankind's triumph is to rise above nature's dictates, and those imposed by the generations before ours. We ask not for your full approval, but for your understanding of the circumstances leading to this. I believe you should be enlightened about the roots of the bond between your daughter and my son. Negi."

"Yes, Mother?" he asked warily.

"Please show her everything you went through in my homeworld. Teach her exactly why would your students hold you so close to their hearts. Show her everything you did for them."

"Only... if she is willing to allow it," he said, shyly looking for the older Hasegawa's eyes.

After a brief moment of doubt, the divorced woman nodded with reborn resolution.

"Very well. I wish to know everything that happened to my daughter ... and yes, to you too ... over there."

* * *

It was unlike anything she'd ever seen before.

Once, Nagi had - with an uncharacteristic hesitancy - offered her a trip through his own memories. Sora had ended up rejecting it, saying she trusted his word, and it wouldn't be right to nose into his past like that. He'd said he had nothing to hide from her, but Sora still turned the offer down. She'd regretted it later after he left, and so she wouldn't let the chance escape this time.

So she now stood naked save for her glasses in the middle of a perfect mental recreation of the Magical World. The utter beauty of that place amazed her. Much like the sovereign who hailed from it, it was majestic and unearthly, intimidating but also overwhelming, captivating and yet clearly dangerous.

Already, she had seen the attack at the Gateport, gasping aloud when she saw Negi being mortally wounded, his life only saved by Konoka's timely intervention. Now she was seeing him saving her daughter from a hideous tentacled beast. After that, she witnessed him fighting in a gladiatoral arena, and how Chisame following him to his training under Jack Rakan, that man Nagi had told her about a few times.

She watched, time and time again, how he risked his life and strained his body beyond the limits of any grown man for the sakes of her daughter and her classmates. Sora couldn't help being horrified; Nagi's stories had made her fear for him in her time, but seeing by herself the kind of dangers a battle mage was exposed to was much more shocking. She felt tears trickling down her eyes as she witnessed every taxing bit of training, every brutal fight, every heart wrenching sacrifice they all made for each other.

And yet what amazed her the most, out of all of that, was something so much smaller. She watched as the boy surged up from unconsciousness, forcing himself out of an imaginary paradise to return to battle, and saw him look down at his students, including Chisame. And saw her looking up at him, and smiling. Her daughter never smiled; after her infancy, she had always been sour and unhappy, save for when she was putting on a role, and even then her smiles were fake and affected, or angry and cynical.

This wasn't. This was pure. This was joyful.

As the experience ended, she noticed the tears were leaking out of her real eyes as well, and she rubbed them off with the back of a hand. "Y-You ..." she stammered, placing shaking hands on Negi's shoulders. "Y-You shouldn't have lived through all of that. You're still only a child! Oh dear, your innocence has been shattered in all senses. Every child has a right to a normal childhood. Why has life been so harsh to you?"

Negi's eyes were shadowed as he answered. "I don't know. I have asked that question myself quite a bit of late, in fact, without receiving an answer. But perhaps it doesn't really matter. 'That which we are, we are,'" he said, with the air of one quoting something. "I am the only one who can walk this path on which my feet are set. There is no one else. And at least, I do not walk alone."

Arika spoke next. "The happiness to be gained from life does not rely on what life offers us, but on what we make of it, Hasegawa Sora-sama. Despite what you may believe, I, too, have known sorrow in my life. I was robbed of my innocence at the age of twelve, endured the destruction of much that I held dear, and spent years imprisoned unjustly. For all that, my only significant regret is not being there for my children's upbringing."

Her lips twisted in a sad smile. "In that sense, I confess, I envy you. And perhaps, had I spent those years with them, I would not be able to share carnal contact with them. But there is no point on reflecting on such impossibilities."

Sora turned her tearful face towards the other woman, shocked at the casual mention of rape. "You, you were ... at twelve!"

She simply nodded. "By own my father. And, yes, I have been asked if that should not turn me against the intimacy I enjoy with my own children. But it is precisely the wish, to make sure they do not lead the same kind of unpleasant, unloving sexual life I led in my own adolescence, that moves me to do what I do. Well, partially, at least," she conceded.

Sora's pale lips trembled. "Oh God. Oh, dear God."

"Hasegawa-sama. Sora," Arika went on, dropping the honorific. "Our children already have given themselves to each other. They love each other, in their own way. At this point, pulling them apart will solve nothing, only bring them more pain."

"I should have stopped this from the start," Sora droned, despairingly. "Morisato-sempai was always right. I shouldn't have forced her to live a lie. Now it's too late to turn back. Chisame, forgive me. For putting you on this path without knowing it, although I should have -"

Chisame sighed, giving her a hug. "No, you forgive me, Mother. I also lied and hid secrets from you. I can't blame you if you hate me after this -"

"No, don't say that! You're my only child, the only person I still love!" Sora clung to her, needy and broken. "I don't care if you commit all the sins in the world, I'll still love you. And you have been brave, far braver than I ever could be. You're more your father's daughter than mine. I'm sorry I never told you about him."

"We always can start now," Chisame whispered, both of them holding each other closer. Then they both lifted their faces to say something, but their lips ended up brushing instead.

Mother and daughter recoiled from that touch, blushing deeply. Arika only smirked knowingly, as Negi stared on, not really getting it despite all he had been through. Some traces of childlike naivete and slowness in recognizing the signs still remained in him.

"Sora," Arika said, leaning closer to the other mother.

"Y-Yes?"

"It has been far too long since either of us claimed the lips of our mutual beloved, has it not?"

"Yes," Sora voiced her sorrow, not meeting that steady gaze.

"And yet, we still could find the flavor left by those lips, somewhere else." She lifted Sora's head up with both hands, looking for consent in her eyes. She smiled sweetly, actually, and yet with obvious sensuality, the likes of which Sora had only ever seen in Urd-san.

"You mean -"

Arika's intoxicating breath blew softly on her face as she spoke, her voice silky and enticing. "Neither of us is him, but we are all part of what he was, of what he carried in his heart. I am willing to enjoy your company as long as you enjoy mine - or rather, ours - as well. Reject it, and I will think nothing of it. Still, it would please me greatly if I could verify for myself what kind of virtue Nagi enjoyed in you."

For a moment, the shorter woman only stared up at her in horror, trembling like a puppy, before her lips parted open, and a whisper escaped them. "Likewise."

"Mother!" Chisame breathed out, as Negi gulped loudly.

"All these years, I couldn't help wondering what kind of woman you were," Sora admitted. "I knew you had to be something wonderful, greater than life, from everything he ever told me about you, and he didn't lie. Your ways scare me, and yet I can't look away from them, or you. Now I understand Chisame's path; you, just like him, are impossible to resist, no matter how wrong it may be..."

Arika caressed her cheeks with her thumbs. "Do you think it is really wrong?"

"Y-Yes."

"But do you care?" she asked again.

There was a long hesitation before Sora shook her head. "No."

And then she hugged her, leaning forward to crash her lips against hers, forgetting all prudence, all morality, everything but the long buried need burning inside of her, and the wonderfully sweet and spicy flavor of that mouth. It actually didn't taste like Nagi's; it had been too long since then. But it still tasted so wonderful.

Arika smiled inwardly, even as her hands began to skillfully pull Sora's jacket back and off.

Chisame and Negi's eyes were perfectly round as they mutely watched their mothers kissing passionately, their hands taking off piece after piece of clothing. Sora's hands trembled and hesitated most of the time, while Arika's were confident, precise in their movements. The results were still the same, though, as both women were getting naked at an alarmingly fast rate.

Chisame had never imagined her mousy, meek, bland and boring mother could ever look sexy or passionate, but Arika seemed to have that effect on people, from the nerdy Hakase to the normally just adorable Negi. In that way, yes, she was like Evangeline, Chisame guessed. If that was a good or bad thing remained to be seen, but no matter what, it still was impossible to look away from it. Even for them.

Arika had fully bared Sora's torso, running her tongue in circles all over her small breasts as she pinned her down against the floor, holding the struggling smaller woman still. Sora blushed deeply, remembering that yes, those were their children watching them, and yes, that was bad, to put it mildly. "N-No ... w-we can't do this ..."

"Your mouth says no." Arika leaned down to kiss and lick her mouth, making small obscene slurping sounds, "But your eyes and your body say yes." Chisame found herself wondering if Arika had ever watched any porn movies, or if such phrasing was just something that came naturally with being a sexual predator. (Perhaps both things were true.) "You're only giving token, absent signs of struggle. You know you don't want for this to stop."

Sora groaned as Arika's lapping mouth moved down her belly, her hands undoing her skirt and pulling it down, then doing the same to her panties. "Kyaaa ... Arika-sama, no ... please, that's my daughter there watching ..."

"Do you happen to have any problem with this, Chisame?" Arika asked, not bothering to look up.

"None at all." She shook her head, maybe a bit too fast.

"And you, my son?"

Negi shook his head as well, with a blush and some more reluctance.

"C-Chisame!" Sora gasped, only to gasp when Arika's head dove in between her legs, her tongue meeting Sora's lower entrance. "Oh! Oh my god! This can't be happening. This can't - " She gritted her teeth, her hands clutching on the couch as Arika rapidly began an expert stacatto of tongue work, the former mechanic's voice growing unable to protest coherently.

Chisame breathed in, breathed out, and, not able anymore to hold herself back, knelt down next to Arika, taking a hold of her long skirt and sliding it down her slender legs. She gave a come hither look at Negi, who gulped. By now, it took him less and less to get the clues. Then, with a sigh, he began to undress.

Chisame massaged Arika's full, soft and round buttocks between both hands; they were very pale, almost rosy in tone, with only a slight hint of the sag caused by aging. Then she reached over with her tongue, tentatively licking Arika's vagina, just as Arika herself was doing to Chisame's mother.

"Ah," Arika sighed. "This, this is what some call a 'daisy chain', Negi," she said. Chisame wasn't expert enough to be able to bring her to incoherence yet, but at the very least, her enthusiasm was commendable. "You may remember seeing something similar during our celebration before -"

"Uh-huh," Negi interrupted, neither needing nor wanting a reminder of that episode. Now naked, he finished stripping Chisame bare as well, positioning himself behind her as Sora watched on with glassy, wide eyes, her breathing coming out in loud puffs.

He quickly debated abandoning the task at hand, under the glare of those eyes. Since that day, he had tried very hard to avoid this sort of thing, especially with his students. And yet, here he was again, engaged not only with one of his dearest companions but also with her mother. But if he were to back down, now, he would only hurt that beloved friend, soon to be the mother of his child. So, with great care, he began to penetrate Chisame from behind, making her moan into Arika's crotch.

The sight of it made Sora orgasm right then and there. "Oh! Ah! Ah, ah! Ahh!"

It was as if history was repeating itself. First her and Nagi, now her daughter and his son. Okay, so it also was his daughter and his son, but somehow, it didn't seem to matter that much now.

As though reading her mind, Arika's smile grew as she looked up from between Sora's spread thighs. Pausing briefly to kiss Sora on the hipbone, she spoke languidly. "Hmmm. Perhaps we should cut out the middleman, as it were?"

"Eh?" Sora and Chisame said, very nearly in stereo.

"N-no," Sora continued nervously. "No, I don't -"

"It was not I who gave you that climax," Arika said. "I have not yet begun to make love to you. It was what you saw, not what you felt, which brought you to that height. You know this to be the truth."

"But, but I don't -" Chisame gasped as Negi heedlessly pounded away behind her.

"How is it different from what you have done with your sisters, or with -" Arika started to ask, glancing behind her as she rolled up into a seated position, cutting off Chisame's access to her core.

"That's, that's not the same!" the girl interrupted.

Sisters? thought Sora. Nagi had had other daughters? She wasn't sure whether that made her feel better or worse about her situation, but the realization that her own daughter had been doing all these things, and at an age when Sora herself had been too scared to even look at boys, was a disturbing one.

It also distracted her long enough for Arika to wheel around behind her, her hips on either side of Sora's buttocks, her hands resting firmly on Sora's knees and keeping her legs spread. "Come here, Chisame, dear," the former queen said in a tone both sensuous and forceful.

Almost without conscious thought, Chisame moved forward, pulling Negi with her, until there was almost no space between herself and her mother. But she stopped before she touched her, once again recoiling, but nowhere nearly as violently as before. And Sora could see that her daughter was looking down at her, in particular at her breasts, and the nipples that she had once fed from. Her lips twitched.

Dry mouthed, Sora found herself speaking. "Chiu-chan," she said, using the girl's childhood nickname. "If, if you don't want to, that's okay. B-but if you, if you do ... you are very, very beautiful, Chiu-chan."

Chisame was paralyzed for a moment, then her lips twitched again. "I love you mommy," she said in a tiny, childish voice, and then bent down to take one of Sora's nipples in her mouth. Sora gasped at the sensation, both of that touch and of the pressure of her daughter's fingers at the junction of her legs, as well.

"Well done," Arika murmured into the other woman's ear, gently caressing her sides as Chisame began to kiss her way down Sora's stomach. "You and I are more alike than you realize."

Sora honestly wasn't sure how she felt about that notion, but she didn't have time to think about it as her mind was seized by the horrific and yet oh so wonderful sensation of her daughter's breath on her clitoris. It had been so long since that one night with Urd, right after Toshiyuki had walked away again, and this was so much like that and yet so very different as well.

For his part, Negi was simply pounding away behind Chisame - not too hard; certainly not as hard as Mana enjoyed even when they didn't go all-out - and occasionally bending forward to rub at her breasts with his hands, or caress between her legs. It was almost monotonous for him. But it was making her happy, judging by the faint cries she let out while performing cunnilingus on her mother. And that was what mattered, after all.

But he was starting to wonder whether that was really true.

Now, though, was not the time for such considerations, as he felt the tension that told him that his own climax was near. A gentleman, however, should always insist upon ladies first, so he quickly sped up his attentions to Chisame's clitoris. As she shuddered in orgasmic release that transmitted up to her mother, whose head pitched backwards in sensation, Negi permitted his own ejaculation. Ordinarily, he would have asked whether he should pull out or not, but since she was presently enjoying the only certain form of contraception - already being pregnant - it seemed superfluous.

He fell back, breathing just a bit heavily. Well, now he could rest ...

... orrrr not, he realized as he felt a trio of tongues caressing his stiffening phallus. Clearly, the encounter was far from over.

Negi leaned back, supporting his back against a wall, and relinquishing control over the whole situation to the three women. He'd never been given fellatio by three females all at once, and the novelty of this particular experience somehow gave it more interest than usual, enough to make it actually enjoyable after a few moments, briefly overcoming his jaded thoughts on the subject.

He moaned a bit, watching how the three tongues ran all over it, up and down, shamelessly caressing each other as well in the proccess. Unconsciously, he began swinging his hips softly to meet their mouths, until Arika gestured for Chisame to back away with her, allowing Sora full solo access. After a short moment of hesitation, the bespectacled woman took him into her mouth, sucking him slowly, trying to do it the way Nagi liked it.

The way he groaned, placing his hands on her hair, to guide it gently, told her she was rather out of practice, but that only spurred her to improve. Her hands caressed his small hairless testicles, and she intensified the pace, trying to make him climax. Arika, however, had other plans, as proved when the queen pulled Sora back, her mouth making a disappointed sund she barely recognized as her own while leaving Negi's boyhood bathed in saliva.

Arika slid two fingers into Sora's most private cavity and pistoned them a few times softly, trying to loosen the nervous woman's entrance. She whispered in the divorced female's ear. "Is it safe?"

"I ..." she trailed off and gulped. "I just finished my most recent period, so yes, I think it's safe."

"Well, that's both a relief and a shame." Arika's voice was husky and crooning. "As I see it, motherhood is always a joy, but your people seem to think differently, so this should allow you do this with a clearer mind."

Sora nodded jerkily. "Yes. Right." Oddly, the hideous idea of bearing the child of the same boy who had impregnated her daughter, of being pregnant at the same time as her, was starting to sound almost like a sadly wasted chance right now. She licked her lips and, after a brief push forward from Arika, sat on Negi's lap, sighing. "Negi-kun," she breathed.

"Hasegawa-san," he panted raggedly, hugging her body. "Mother."

She moaned, allowing herself slid down just as he carefully thrust himself up, penetrating her under Chisame's morbidly fascinated glare.

"Ah. Ah, ah ah ah! Ah!" Sora supported herself on her hands, arching her back as Negi increased his pace bit by bit, craning his neck up to lick her erect small nipples. He had a feeling he wouldn't hold back for much longer, and wanted to bring the woman to a quick climax before his stamina ran out.

As he saw her melting in her arms, calling both his name and his father's, her petite breasts bouncing up and down in rythm with his thrusts, he tried to recapture the joy of doing it. He tried to remember Asuna's advice on just enjoying it all, on forgetting the worries while being with another.

That was a painful thought.

There was a time and a place for everything. Nekane-neechan had been fond of a song about that.

That was a more painful thought.

Worrying about serious matters in the middle of intimacy was like worrying about English lessons in the middle of a fight. That made sense, right? A time for every purpose under heaven. Yes. Right now, just enjoy and make her enjoy it.

He thrusted harder, and that was enough to push her over the brink, making her a quivering and screaming limp in his arms. Thanking the heavens for it, he was finally able to exert himself to the limit, splurting out as much as he could, resting his head against her pale stomach, breathing in and out noisily, forehead glistening with sweat.

"Oh my god..." Sora whispered weakly, falling on her back and pulling him down her herself, cradling him into her arms, and gesturing for Chisame to join into the embrace. Silently, her daughter obeyed, just as Arika lay on Negi's other side, caressing his flanks and kissing his head, complimenting him in whispers.

Negi said nothing.

For a time they all rested together on the floor, before the chill of August gave them cause to restore their clothes. Sora had seen the finger snap gesture that Arika employed then, and supposed that she was right to not be surprised that the other woman could use such magic as well as her husband.

"Let us now move on to matters more serious," Arika said when they were once more gathered around the table.

"I'm going to have to drop out of school," Chisame interjected, once again deciding to skip the expected small talk.

"What?" Sora balked. "I don't think so!"

"You can probably withdraw the rest of my tuition for this year," Chisame continued, avoiding her mother's gaze. "That should -"

"It's not about the money! You can't just quit your education like -"

"When they find out that I'm pregnant, I'll get expelled anyway!" the girl said. "And considering everything, they'll look at -" She broke off, glancing at Negi shamefacedly, before continuing. "- and that won't do. So I'm going to have to drop out, and move back here with you. I'll have to start high school a little later than I was planning, but ..." She trailed off.

"I find myself in agreement with your mother," Arika picked up the conversation. "We need to find a better way than that. When I was pregnant with Negi, I employed certain enchanted disguises to conceal it so that our enemies would not believe me to be weakened or vulnerable. These would not be inexpensive, but -"

"But if anything disrupted them, I'd be right back where I started. And a lot of things could go wrong over the next nine months to make that happen."

"Time is the problem," Negi murmured. "I wish Master were still with us. Her resort would make that problem a lot easier to solve."

Sora blinked. "Resort? When you talk about this 'master' ... do you mean Evangeline?"

Arika turned sharply to look at the other woman. "Nagi told you about her?" she asked, frowning. "He didn't talk about her with me until I asked, and I only learned of his battle with her through other sources."

"When I asked about what he was doing for the Headmaster at Mahora, he told me everything," Sora replied, undaunted by Arika's expression. The thought that Nagi had been more forthcoming with her than with _her_ buoyed up Sora's self-confidence a bit. "And I thought that turning her into a child was a bit cruel, so he told me about her resort, where time slowed down. That's possible?" she asked, abruptly. "I wasn't sure whether to believe that part of it."

"It's possible," Arika confirmed, frown not fading. "But creating such artifacts is a magic more potent than any of us can use, and those who can use it might ask still higher prices for their assistance. Further, they would attract unwelcome - where are you going?"

"The kitchen," Sora said, having gotten up and started walking away. "Please excuse me for a moment."

If magic wouldn't do it ... then it was time to try engineering.

In complete silence, she took down the largest pot from the shelf above the sink, and filled it with water. The silence was broken as she grunted while carrying the heavy pot over to the stove-top, but she didn't say anything. That was important. The words had to be chosen carefully, and Sora considered them for a moment before she decided what to say.

"Skuld-san, I'm calling in the solid you owe me," Sora said at last, and closed her eyes.

Too late. The dark-haired teenage form was surging up out of the water even as her eyelids descended. She didn't like seeing that happen. The magic Nagi had shown her had defied her understanding, but his description of how it worked seemed based in a rational world view at least. That could not be said for this way in which water became a medium through which a person -- or something in a person's shape -- moved from one point to another without crossing the space in between.

"Well, I'll be glad to finally - hey, why are your eyes closed?" asked a cheery voice from in front of her.

"No reason," she said as she opened them to find Skuld sitting on the edge of the stove-top, knees dangling down in front of it. She looked almost completely unchanged from the last time Sora had seen her, still wearing the white garments with red lining, but in fact there were a few changes. The tattoos on her face looked slightly different. But this wasn't the time for such considerations.

"Come on down from there, I need to introduce you to my daughter and some friends of hers," Sora continued.

"Okay," Skuld said agreeably as she hopped down. She seemed to be in a very chipper mood for once. "Gee, Chisame-chan must be all grown up now."

"It's only been about nine years since you last saw her, actually," Sora demurred as she led the small goddess of the future towards the living room.

"Really? It felt more like twelve or so ... where does the time go?" Skuld wondered aloud.

Since Sora often felt the same way, she didn't voice an answer. "Um, this is an old friend of mine -" she started to say as the others turned to look at her.

And then broke off as Arika promptly fell to the floor and began genuflecting in Skuld's direction while speaking in a language Sora had never heard before. From what she could see of it, the queen's face was ashen.

Negi and Chisame looked just as startled as Sora was by all of this. "Mother, what in the world -" Negi started to ask.

"Zttt!" said Arika without looking at him, and then resumed her unintelligible speech.

"Well, this is sort of unexpected," Skuld said after a moment.

"What is she -" Sora asked.

"She apparently thinks that I'm the Moirae Atropos, and, having some strange ideas about what that personage does, is asking me to visit the punishment for her sins on her alone," the goddess answered casually. "I guess they conflated Atropos and Nemesis in Vespertatia."

"Well, can't you tell her that you're not this Atropos person?" Sora asked. It was honestly a bit satisfying to see Arika brought to this humiliating state, but they did have some things to do.

"That's a little bit tricky," Skuld replied. "But ..." She trailed off, and then began speaking in the same language as Arika, causing the former queen to stop talking and listen. "Nornae Skuld," were the only words that Sora could make out, but whatever she said, it got Arika to get up from the pose of genuflection and sit seiza instead. Her eyes periodically darted from Skuld's calm face to Sora's, and her expression was still deeply startled.

It was very satisfying on one level, even though Sora couldn't really see what the big deal was about her being familiar with a goddess ...

* * *

"So what you need is basically a stable singularity with a normal gravity 'chamber' inside the event horizon," Skuld said, reviewing the notes she'd taken.

"Yes, I suppose that's a good description," Sora agreed. "We -"

"Okay, I'll just go get some stuff I'm going to need to put it together," Skuld continued brusquely as she stood up.

"Uh, aren't you going to ask why we need it?" the ex-mechanic asked, a little startled by how quickly things were moving along.

Skuld looked at her oddly. "When you helped me, you didn't ask why I needed you to do things."

"Oh."

"Um, just a moment," said Negi, striving to keep up with this conversation. Understandably, physics wasn't one of his strong suits. When one can defy what are generally thought of as laws of nature, understanding those laws is seldom a priority. But he had picked up a few things over the last little while, particularly after Satomi had started lending him science fiction stories. So he felt inclined to ask for confirmation. "A singularity is what they call a black hole, correct?"

"It's technically the other way around, but, yes," Skuld answered. "Time is distorted by a sufficiently large amount of gravity, like you encounter inside the event horizon of a singularity. By controlling the gravity you experience, you feel like time is passing at a normal rate, even though it's actually sped up dramatically. And of course, you aren't crushed into subatomic particles."

"Oh," said Negi, and gulped. "And this is how all time distortion areas work?"

"There's other ways, but this is easiest. The others take a lot more start-up time."

"I see," he said faintly. "Thank you." Despite his unease at discovering exactly what they were about to go through, he felt a bit relieved to be talking to a woman who didn't seem to be even remotely -

And then he saw the look she was giving him from the corner of her eye as she turned back to talk to Sora again. "I'll be back in just a bit," she said, and he was sure that he wasn't imagining the faint note of promise in her tone.

With a serious effort, he stopped himself from sighing as she walked back into the kitchen.

"So let me get this straight," Chisame said dryly, the first words she'd spoken since being introduced to the young divinity. "My babysitter from when I was in kindergarten is a goddess."

"Yes, that's Skuld-san," Sora agreed.

"And that lady you went out drinking with sometimes is a goddess."

"Urd-san," Sora confirmed, blushing a bit at those memories.

"And Morisato-san's wife, the nice lady I met that one time, is also a goddess."

Her mother just nodded.

"That last one just doesn't surprise me somehow," Chisame muttered, then let out a groan. "My life was _never_ normal, was it?"

"Well, I didn't find out about any of this until after you were born, so I suppose that technically - oh. Well, when you add who your father actually was into it, then no, I suppose that it wasn't. I'm sorry."

She waved the apology away. "It figures."

Arika, who appeared to have regained most of her former elan with Skuld's departure, nodded soberly. "Indeed, it does," she said. "Not only your own qualities, but those of your associates, informed Nagi's choice of you, Sora."

That made Sora blink. "You mean that he knew?"

"I think it most likely," Arika replied. "He was not a particularly god-bothered individual, but he would not have missed the signs that are there to see. And when I consider with whom Chisame's other half-sister in this country was left, a pattern begins to emerge of ensuring that his children will be protected."

"Well, that's nice, I guess," Sora said, just a bit put out by this. She was uncomfortable enough with the thought of being the other woman. The thought that there was another other woman out there, and that he'd been with her around the same time as they'd been together was even more disconcerting, as was the thought of him making such choices so ... cold-bloodedly.

Arika, perhaps guessing this, opened her mouth to perhaps remonstrate with her. Whatever she would have said was cut off when there was a large splashing noise from the kitchen. Skuld promptly darted into the room. "Okay, I'm going to need a second pair of hands for this."

* * *

Roughly an hour later, Sora's kitchen resembled the engine room of the USS Enterprise.

"All right, one last bit of fine tuning and we're good to go," Skuld opined as she examined some charmingly retro-looking gauges through her goggles. "About how much time distortion are we looking at, here?"

"The one in the resort was an hour outside for every day inside," Negi started to say.

"So you only need about three days, then?" Skuld interrupted. "Because this thing won't hold together for longer than about three hours. I've basically used the equivalent of baling wire in assembling it, and I'm going to have to watch it like a hawk or it'll collapse and take out most of this part of Japan."

"Really," said Negi, starting to panic again. "Maybe then -"

"A year," Chisame interjected. "Make an hour outside last a year inside ... and that'll be enough."

"Okay, about 1:9000 then. I can't get any more precise than that, so it's going to be a year to a little less than an hour, but ... well, anyway. Who's going in?"

"We are," said Negi, gesturing between himself and Chisame.

"You're not," said Chisame, gesturing at him.

"Ehh?" he asked sharply.

"You can't," she said firmly. "If it takes a year, then by the time you come out, you could be going through a growth spurt. People will notice. They will ask questions. You can't."

"I can't let you go through this alone, is what I can't do!" Negi protested.

"I won't," Chisame said.

"Of course you won't," Sora interjected. "I'm coming with you."

Chisame blinked. "Mother!" she said, startled.

"I haven't been a good one, I know, but I won't let you go through this without any help -"

"Uh, actually, what I meant was, I, well ..." Chisame trailed off, then pulled out her cell-phone and speed-dialled someone. "Uh, it's me. Can you come and -"

There was a knock on the door, and then a crashing noise. And then Chachamaru walked into the kitchen and surveyed the area calmly, before bowing politely towards Sora. "My apologies, Hasegawa-sama, for the damage to your door."

"No, not at all," Sora said, reflexively, before the question bubbled up. "Um, who are you, again?"

"This is Chachamaru Karakuri, she's my -" Chisame started to say, then stalled a bit.

"Fuckbuddy," supplied Chachamaru.

"Annoying best friend!" Chisame shouted in a probably vain attempt to distract her mother's attention from that last bit. God, she's worse with me than she was with Evangeline, the hacker thought wearily.

"Ah," Sora said, filing the first statement away while she focused on the other one. "I see."

Skuld, having removed her goggles to stare at Chachamaru with an expression best described as blatant lust, cleared her thoat. "Would you mind terribly if I took you apart?" she asked.

"Yes, I would mind," Chachamaru replied.

"I'd put you back together as soon as I was done."

"The answer is still yes."

Skuld pouted, and lowered the goggles once more. "Okay," she said brusquely. "So the two of you are going in with her, then?"

"Yes," said Sora, while the gynoid simply nodded.

"This is -" Chisame started to explain.

"It does not matter," Chachamaru said. "Whither thou goest, I go."

Chisame felt herself blushing brightly, then turned to look at Skuld. Coughing, she spoke. "We're ready, then."

"Okay, then, hold hands and -" Skuld threw a large switch, and on top of a flat surface, a glowing purple globe appeared. "- step into the glowing purple globe."

Taking her mother's hand in one hand and Chachamaru's in the other, Chisame paused to offer a quick nod towards Arika, who had been overseeing all of this in silence. And then she turned to look at Negi.

What passed between them was beyond words.

"See you in an hour," she finally said. "See you next year."

And then they stepped into the globe, and vanished.

Negi settled in, to wait and hope ...


	38. Omake and Author's Notes

So here we are, almost at the end of the journey. I'd prefer to avoid cliched expressions like 'What a long strange yadda yadda yadda', but, well, they fit. What can I possibly say? I never imagined that this story would achieve the length it has.

The genesis of this story, of course, begins with my deciding to see whether there were any fanfics on _a certain site_ that paired up Negi and my personal favorite of the 3-A girls, Chisame Hasegawa. And lo and behold, there were! Why, there was even a series entitled "More Than Fifty-Four Chisame and Negi Threesomes", which immediately attracted my interest, so I started reading.

Midway down the first page of that series was a little number that had Negi and Chisame in a threesome with Arika, Negi's mom. I couldn't believe that someone would do such a thing. I was stunned. I was flabbergasted.

I was innocent, once.

A little while later, the Threesomes story updated, and included a vignette entitled 'Decadent Habits'. I must have sat there at my computer staring at the screen in sheer amazement at what was on display. And then I felt a Calling. I knew that it had been given to me to write about how the situation depicted within had come about. So I wrote OverMaster, the author of said vignette, and asked permission, which he graciously gave.

Initially, all that I was going to do was describe the sequence of events that led to the events of the vignette. I was only going to involve the seven characters within it, plus Asuna. And then OverMaster, with whom I maintained an active correspondence during the writing and publication of the first few chapters, inquired whether I'd mind if he guest-wrote one. I said sure, since I was running out of the steam I used to write a chapter per day.

And then he wrote Chisame's chapter, and everything changed. The universe got bigger. Now, I'd already decided that I was going to have Ayaka as Negi's half-sister on his father's side before that, but it was my intention at that point to have her not having sex with him, having her feel a genuine, normal sisterly love for him. But the last lines of Chapter Six, with Evangeline plotting, introduced a plot. I realized, then, that I was going to have to go beyond the limits of the story that I'd originally planned.

It's really all OverMaster's fault, then. All the unhappiness that the characters have gone through in the last few chapters can be directly laid at his door. Blame him, not me.

Still, even then, I didn't know exactly how it was all going to play out. Most of the major plot events came out while I was writing earlier chapters, as though I was discovering the story rather than creating it. My cowriters served as excellent sources of inspiration; when I saw what they'd come up with, I had to work out how it fit together.

And ultimately, it all did. But there were some pieces of the puzzle that didn't quite fit in to the narrative, and this is the best place for them. So let's bring on the Omake, shall we?

* * *

 **Hey, You Know That Thing Where There's This Really Powerful Character Who Somehow Doesn't Show Up For The Big Fights? Isn't That Annoying?** by Darkenning

A few days later, Mana was sitting in her room finishing up the final draft of her incident report when the phone rang. Since she was alone, with Setsuna off 'comforting' Konoka over Asuna's disappearance, she answered it. "Y'allo?" she said.

"Hey, kid, it's me, " said Rakan's voice. "I'm in jail."

Mana contemplated this briefly, and considered hanging up. But no, better to save that as a response for the absurdities that were sure to follow. "What are you doing in jail?"

"Well, obviously, I'm phoning you. What a ridiculous question."

"Why are you in jail?" Mana rephrased.

"Oh. Well, there was this incident when I tried swimming through this canal that they've got here. Apparently, they don't want people to do that."

"It occurs to me, " Mana said after a moment of silent consideration, "that I should have asked where you are in jail, first. Where is this jail?"

"Somewhere called Panama."

That did it. "I'm hanging up, now."

"Just send some bail money all right! I don't have any local specie with me and I don't want to cause any problems!"

"You do that by breathing!" she said and hung up.

* * *

 **Conversational Reveal,** by Darkenning

Chachamaru managed to hold in her tears until she got out of the infirmary, but then there was no stopping them. Her master, her mother, her lover, was gone forever.

"What happened?" asked a quiet voice from her side.

Slowly, the words came out.

"When I said that I wished she didn't exist, you told me that if she didn't, neither would you. But that if somehow you did exist in a world without her ... you'd never, ever leave me. Is that still true?"

Slowly, Chachamaru turned to look at her ... and then kissed Chisame hard.

* * *

 **Chamo in Hell,** by OverMaster

The Devil laughed as he showed Chamo his new accomodations. "So, this is your resting place for all eternity! The Hell for Evil Mascots!"

"Hey, Chamo, " Kyubey waved from a pot of boiling liquid turning him out from the inside. "It has been a long while."

"H-Hello, Kyubey-kun..." the ermine waved weakly. "Guess we'll be neighbors now, huh?"

Chachazero giggled madly, hugging him, her cleaver still running him through. "Didn't I get us the loveliest place for our eternal union, Chamo-kun?"

Kyubey pointed to an empty spot between two other damned ones. "Just get over there and wait for your torture to be assigned. You don't mind, do you, Scrappy-kun? Sonichu-kun?"

"I fucking hate everything in all of existence," the fallen Doo muttered from where he was perpetually crushed to death.

Sonichu shrugged, despite being reduced to a bloody pulp between the jaws of a Cerberus. "Still beats living in CWC-ville..."

 **Ave Atque Vale,** by Darkenning

The local crematorium was overworked. There hadn't been very many deaths during the invasion, but there had been more than there were in a normal day at Mahora, and so they had become backed up. And their guard was down.

So it was easy for Setsuna to slip in that night, find the right coffin, and open it with no one the wiser. In death, Tsukuyomi looked more peaceful than she had ever looked in life. The crematorium staff didn't do much in the way of 'beautifying' their corpses, but they had gotten her neck straightened out. It would have been easy to imagine that all the other girl was doing was sleeping.

Setsuna paused, and checked. Nope, quite dead.

And then she bent down and kissed her lips, just once. "You were a worthy opponent," she said. "I hope that comforts you, wherever you are now."

She closed the coffin once more and walked away.

 **Tsukuyomi in Hell,** by Shadow Crystal Mage

Hell is a dark and miserable place. Well, actually that's a HUGE understatement, but anything closer to the truth will fry men's minds. And women too, if you're going to be all Lord of the Rings about it. It is the place of eternal torment. There is no peace here. You NEVER get used to it. The pain never fades, and no one takes care of you. And at each and every moment, you can see a shadow of Heaven, casting its brilliance across every corner, and know what could have been. There is no joy, no happiness, no satisfaction. Only eternal torment.

"AH!" came the shrill, high-pitched cry of a little girl. "AH! MORE! MORE! Don't stop! DON'T STOP! YES! DO IT! DO IT!"

The Fallen working on her, J(O/E), looked at his supervisor helplessly. "Always the same thing boss. The lake of fire, the hills of stones, the circle of gluttons nothing we try works! I've had folks who thought they were too kinky to torture, but they break way before this when we break out the chainsaw drill acid dildoes!"

His supervisor, J(I/M), frowned thoughtfully. "Barney tapes?"

"She started singing along, " J(O/E) said, finding himself shuddering.

"Reading all the Mary Sue fics on the Internet?"

"She was getting off on it!"

"Ishihara's greatest hits?"

"She says she's voting for him."

"Necronomicron?"

"She was asking for hook ups!"

"Cthulhu?"

"She liked the tentacles, though she thought he was bland."

"Agony In Pink?"

"She fell asleep."

A thoughtful pause. "Well, I guess we have no choice. Give her a job."

Sometime later, Tsukuyomi followed her new co-worker down the halls of Dis, where posters telling people to vote for Philippine Presidential candidates adorned the walls, hideous plastic plants decorated the corners, and framed pictures of Joe Quesada, Dan DiDio, and the Time issue declaring Hitler Man of the Year had pride of place.

"So, when do I get started torturing people?" Tsukuyomi asked eagerly, as they passed a whole warehouse of Alladia homunculi under going group therapy. Already they were screaming heaps of agony from having to talk about their feelings.

"You don't, newbie," her guide said, leading her to a desk overflowing with papers. "You're to fill out these requisition forms for sulphur in quinticate and have them submitted to the quartermaster."

Tsukuyomi stared.

Her screams joined the rest of the damned.

* * *

 **Makie's Ever After,** by Shadow Crystal Mage

"I'm home!" Makie cried as she returned to the dorm with Ako, their arms full of groceries.

"Makie-sama!" Purim cried.

"Makie-sama!" Suramui cried.

"Makie-sama!" Ameko cried.

"Slime-tans!" Makie cried, putting down her bags and holding out her open. The slime girls jumped into them, and the four of them fell to the ground in a happy, giggling heap.

Ako sweatdropped. "Makie-chan, is this really a good idea? Remember what Yue and the others told us about them."

"But they're so cute!" Makie gushed. "And they followed me home!"

"That's not a good thing, Makie-chan!" Ako exclaimed.

"Makie-sama is the best boss ever!" Ameki declared.

"No missions!" Suramui exclaimed happily.

"Ice cream!" Purin declared.

"Ice cream!" her sisters chorused.

"Ice cream!" Makie agreed. "Ako-chan, can you get it? I'm kinda stuck."

Sighing, Ako reached for the pint of 'Chocolate Overkill Omnicide' they had bought. She'd always felt disturbed by how the label on it said the manufacturer wasn't responsible for spontaneous orgasms, diabetes and death. "Here, " she said, popping it it open and scooping herself some before handing it to Makie along with four spoons.

The way Makie and the slimed pounced on it reminded her of nothing so much as a school of piranha.

_"It seems safe to leave the slimes in our youngest sister's care," Arika said, sipping her tea. "They are, in their own way, innocents, their behavior influenced by their employer. Makie having their loyalty will be good for them. And this way, she is also well protected."_

_Chizuru frowned. "Still, it makes me uncomfortable. What if that should change?"_

_"It seems unlikely for the immediate future, " Arika said. "They seem genuinely fond of her. They're even calling themselves her Cloud Ninja."_

_"Cloud Ninja?"_

_"Because Makie is an airhead, and clouds belong in the air."_

_"Ah, " Chizuru said in understanding. "And you currently have no plans to ..." She trailed off, uncertain how to phrase it._

_"Jump her bones?" Arika said wryly. "No. Don't look so surprised. Makie's innocence is her strength, and until she finds another, I will not take it from her. Besides ..." her tone turned wistful. "She has what we've never had. Happiness. Normalcy. Peace. I am not so envious of that as to take it away. Let her keep it."_

_They sipped._

_"Your tea could be better, sister, " Chizuru commented._

_"I'm working on it!"_

In the night, as Makie slept and Ako snuck off to ... whoever (honestly, it was hard to keep track), the slime sisters indulged in their own decadence. There being no mono-formed non-shifter to pander to, to a layman it less resembled sex and looked more like a tub of jello.

"I wonder how long before we can do this with Makie-sama?" Suramui said (panting was for puny air breathers) as she did something with no anatomical equivalent to Ameko that had the computer specialist losing cohesion.

"Patience," Purin said, a quivering patch in the center of the quivering blob. "When she is ready. When she _wants_."

They sighed.

Squishy, splashy noises filled the room as Makie dreamed she had a waterbed filled with lime jello ...


	39. Epilogue II & Co-Authors' Notes

**Epilogue: Chao** , by Darkenning

My family name is Chao and my personal name is Lin-shen, and there is a considerable flaw in my character. In other forms of Romanization, my personal name is written as "Lingshen", and it is under that name which I was registered as a student at Mahora Academy Girls' Junior High School, in the first year of this century, slightly less than eighty years before I was born. I was born on the planet Mars, that portion of it dubbed the Special Autonomous Region, ruled by the People's Republic of China.

This is not my story, however, though I am the only one who can tell it. It is rather the story of the lives of my classmates in Mahora Junior High School for Girls, Class 3-A, in the months and years after the events already chronicled by other hands than mine. Life continues, even if lives do not, and even the greatest of personal tragedies are but tears in the rain of life.

Or so some would have it.

Let us begin, then, with Aisaka Sayo, whom some might claim I never actually met, as she had died in 1940, sixty-odd years before I came to Mahora. To these allegations I would cheekily reply that I in fact did meet her before that, when my first journey by Cassiopeia deposited me in the year 1938. Indeed, she and the young Konoe Konoemon (whom I came to know very well indeed) were both helpful in hiding me from various persons with intentions quite opposed to my own.

Of her later existence, I can say little. She continued to haunt the grounds of the Academy for many years after she was granted a graduation from both its junior high school and its high school levels. Whatever unfinished business kept her from traveling to the next world, or dissolving into oblivion, was clearly not resolved by such matters. But she was seen less and less by the spiritually gifted members of Mahora's community, disappearing for the last time after ... but I'm getting ahead of myself. Regardless, if there is a heaven - a matter of which I claim complete indifference - it surely must have welcomed such a spirit as hers.

Akashi Yuna also graduated with the rest of her class, despite having been closely involved with the next time that disaster visited itself on the academy. I will not speculate as to whether or not her relationship with her father was forever tainted by their more intimate relationship, but I will imagine that it became even more complicated when it was discovered that Akashi Yuko was in fact alive, only petrified and hidden away in a basement in Meridiana, and that she was restored in Yuna's senior year of high school.

This may have been what drove her into a series of unfortunate romances that culminated in her marriage in 2008 to an older man, who passed away in 2011, not long after the birth of their first and only son. She raised him on her own. Some among her classmates who met her in the decade following this found themselves wondering whether history might be repeating itself. Those speculations ground to a halt when both she and her son were among the many missing in the Kanto Earthquake of 2025. The romantic in me wonders whether or not they might have seized the opportunity to reinvent themselves. The pragmatist thinks they died.

To the surprise of all who knew her, Asakura Kazumi did not go on to become a tabloid journalist. Even in that final year of her junior high school education, she had started to come to terms with the fact that exposing secrets to the world wasn't really what she wanted to do. (One can credit her friendship with Sayo for this; indeed, she once admitted to me, under circumstances that I'd rather not discuss, that Sayo was the first friend she'd ever had.) Learning them for herself was another matter, and so she set upon a different course.

That course eventually brought her to the administration of Mahora Academy. Through hard work, dedication, aptitude, and (one suspects) a measured amount of blackmail employed against the Megalo-Mesembrian authorities, she eventually rose to become the school's Headmaster. The thirty years of her supervision of the academy came to be viewed as one of the golden ages of the academy's history, equal to or even surpassing the early years of the Konoe era without the disasters that attended its end. She passed away quietly in in 2061. Some who had the sight claimed that they saw a younger version of her strolling away, hand in hand, with Sayo, through the gates. Again, if there is a heaven, let them have won entry.

Asakura was not the only one of my classmates to find that their path led them to become an educator. Ayase Yue's path was somewhat more complicated. From that year forward, she spent her summers pursuing magical education at Ariadne even as she learned more conventional education at Mahora. She fulfilled the hopes of all those who saw such potential in her (whose numbers, one must admit, did not include my unworthy self) to become not only one of the elite Valkyries of Ariadne, but one of the greatest Valkyrie Commanders who ever wore the armor. And, in the fullness of time, she became headmistress of Ariadne.

I would like to say that her life was as long and as happy and as peaceful as Asakura's. I really would, but history would make a liar of me. In 2039, Ariadne was in the path of the Gorean Hordes, and she fought her last battle in its defense, and was grievously wounded in single combat with the Lord of War. The official version of the history of Ariadne claims that she was rescued and returned to Ariadne, where she convalesced for some time, still directing the defense of the city from her bed, and only dying after the Hordes had withdrawn to seek easier prey. Rumors claim that she died almost immediately and that the official version was promulgated to keep up morale. As an alumnus of Ariadne, I am, I suppose, obligated to believe the first one of those. But I don't.

Izumi Ako's life was not exactly a happy one either. Unlike most of her classmates, she dropped out after graduating from junior high school and stole back to the magical world, where she found her Tosaka. In what should have been a warning to her, she found that he had returned to his old habits after she'd left him, but her return did prompt him to abandon them and swear to fly right henceforth. She believed him, and they were married.

They had a good run, I think. It was over ten years later that a plague swept through their city, claiming the lives of thousands, including at least one wife and mother from the Old World. And I don't think it's fair to blame her for what happened after she died. She couldn't have known that he'd abandon their child (whose story should be told somewhere else) and then head off into the wastelands seeking death. She couldn't have known that he wouldn't find death, but rather come back bringing it to many others as the one they called the Lord of War of what came to be known as the Gorean Hordes. If one were inclined to find a moral in it, and I dislike morals, one might settle for "Anyone can change if they truly want to change ... but what happens when they stop wanting it?"

Of all my classmates, Okochi Akira was always the most mysterious. She never told anyone that she was adopted. (Then again, I'm not even sure that she knew that herself.) I won't say that the speculation presented earlier about her nature is truthful, but it wouldn't be inconsistent with what I know to be factual. She was last seen in 2011, on an Okinawan beach, sitting on a blanket and staring out to sea. Eventually, she got up and walked out into the water, and just sort of swam away.

She was never seen again. Was she a nereid, as Arika claimed? Or was this just her way of committing suicide? Who knows? But whenever I think about her, I think we were just allowed to borrow her for a while ... and that when it was time to go back to where she came from, she went. I like to think of it like that. I allow myself some romance from time to time.

Not every life ends in mystery and tragedy. As we've slowly realized this century, not every life ends. As of this writing, Kakizaki Misa is still among the living. Considering what happened to her during the assault on Mahora, a romantic might have hoped that she grew even closer to her two friends, and that they stuck together through thick and thin thereafter. I'm not that much of a romantic, and neither should you be. The truth of the matter is that the three cheerleaders were growing apart even in that final year of junior high school, and their separation in different high school classes further weakened their bonds.

Kakizaki was already receiving offers to work as a model, but she held out until she got them from more reputable agencies. (I suspect that she probably still slept with the photographers, but it was her choice to do so, rather than serving as a transaction.) She had a brief but glorious career in her late teens and early twenties, and frugally saved enough of her money to open her own agency when her career cooled down. By her forties, she was managing models and idols all over the world. Rumors that she had a profitable sidelight as a madame are surely just vicious slanders.

I met Kakizaki again a few years ago. Her mind is still sharp, but I don't really know if she believed that I was who I was. She was willing to entertain the idea, however, and we talked about old times. Among other things, I asked her why she didn't continue to pursue Negi. Her answer showed a certain amount of wisdom, so I'll preserve it here. "It's fun to chase after princes, perhaps more fun than actually catching them would be. Particularly if the prince is a warrior prince, whose life will be spent in battle after battle that he will be fighting himself, rather than directing from the rear."

Of Kagurazaka Asuna ... what can I possibly say? She did what she thought was right. It's a pretty good epitaph. She acted to preserve her loved one's career as a teacher, believing that it was the only way for him to fulfill his dream of becoming a Magister Magus. She wasn't to know that the only way that anyone ever becomes a Magister Magus is by declaring oneself as one at a point where one cannot be mocked for the pretension, and that Negi's career as a teacher had nothing to do with it.

Perhaps she eventually found out, because she transferred back into Mahora's high school midway through the first year, and eventually graduated with the rest of her class. But her relationship with my great-grandfather had been damaged by their separation, and I don't think it was ever the same again afterwards. Still, she was with him when ... well. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

You can't expect your humble servant to tell you everything at once, can you?

Despite her own expressed intentions, and the rather fervent agreement of the other party, Kasuga Misora did not marry Cocone Fatima Rosa in June of the following year, or, indeed, ever. Once things had calmed down a bit, Misora started to have second and third thoughts about the whole thing and persuaded Cocone to put it off for a bit. The bit became quite a bit, and then a lot. The facts were that even someone as silly and vapid as Misora had to grow up eventually, and the process had finally started. She was always a bit mischievous, but started to channel that mischievous behavior into more socially acceptable paths.

After finally confirming to everyone's satisfaction that she didn't have the vocation to become a nun, she left the order to study theology at Mahora's university school. As time passed, the physical side of her relationship with Cocone became much less important to both of them, though I believe that the emotional side remained critical for the rest of both of their lives. The Grand Reunion of 2023 resulted in her finally discovering her vocation, and she entered divinity school at the age of thirty-five, eventually emerging as one of the first female priests in Japan. (That she was technically a Donatist serving in the Roman Catholic hierarchy didn't bother her parishioners, and so it shouldn't bother you.) She lived a long, full and happy life, passing away in her sleep in 2079.

I'm sure that it should surprise no one to learn that the child of my mind, Karakuri Chachamaru, is still active to this day. One blushes to admit it, but what I build, I build to last. (Admittedly, Hakase did most of the actual building, but it's my designs.) She stayed close to both Negi and Chisame, a remarkable feat when one considers that there were frequently serious differences dividing those two. She generally prefers to avoid the spotlight, given that her origins would cast doubt on the official history of sapient artificial intelligences, as one would expect of someone of her natural humility (which she gets from me, of course.)

I sometimes wonder, though, whether I should on some level blame Chachamaru for my failure in the twentieth century. After all, she was one of my first teachers, though at the time I had no idea that the artificial intelligence who was training me in the sciences was familiar with me from my own future. I'm sure she would never have deliberately set me up to fail, simply to bring about the history that created the situation where she instructed me, and yet I cannot help but wonder. Ah well. It can't be helped, regardless.

Kugimiya Madoka reportedly watched the slightly acrimonious break-up of her cheer-leading triad with something like relief on her face, and then set about to make a new life for herself. She quickly found a band in need of a drummer, and survived that band's inevitable breakup to land in yet another one, which actually managed to get a recording deal. Critics of the period acclaimed her drumming style, and recordings are still treasured by connoisseurs.

Unfortunately, the rock star life is not and never has been a healthy one. She died in 2035, reportedly due to a mutated flu bug. Some conspiracy theorists insist that she was murdered by her manager rather than be allowed to renegotiate her contract, which was admittedly up for renewal. But I think it's much more likely that she simply caught something that didn't agree with her. Such is life.

And now at last we come to the discussion of a life that can't help but be personal to me. My great-grandmother, Ku Fei, eventually led her family away from the Old World and to the New One, where they prospered, particularly in the long and violent years of the Gorean Hordes. They have continued to thrive there even during the great changes which began when Earth-born humanity finally reached Mars through their technology.

Again, I wish that I could say that Ku Fei herself had a happy and peaceful life, but that just wouldn't be true. And if we're being honest, one could say that the traditions of her people, that a woman should wed the one to defeat her in combat, aren't really conducive to happiness. The man that she eventually married was ... not nearly as kind as she was, and their marriage was not a happy one, for all that it produced a fairly large number of offspring, one of whom was my paternal grandfather.

Fortunately, the Ku family tradition also allows for the possibility of divorce ... but those same traditions insist that the children of such a broken union remain with the father. And I think the pain of losing her children must have been worse than anything my great-grandfather ever did to her. I can see it in the eyes of the few remaining photographs of her from this time, shortly before she disappeared. Her death has never been confirmed.

Konoe Konoka and Sakurazaki Setsuna. Konosetsu. No doubt you have been dreading the revelations to come in this section, wondering how and when they broke up. Relax. In so far as I know, they never did, and are still together today, though they did go through another rough patch about a year after these events, when Konoe Eishun came back from an imposed vacation in Okinawa with a new fiancee. Relations between Konoka and her new step-mother weren't easy at first, but she and the former Otohime Mutsumi eventually bonded over how much they had in common. Which of course led to lots of sex.

But that's another story. Much more important are the ways in which Konoka has advanced the study of healing magic, most notably eventually restoring life to the petrified citizens of a certain village. She claimed the title Magister Magi after this, and no one objected as she became the third youngest individual to ever earn it. (It need not really be said who the youngest was. Nor need it be said that the record has been broken since, I observe humbly.) For her part, Setsuna eventually worked up the nerve to ask the Aoyama family for permission to pass on the teachings of the Shinmeiryuu school, and was stunned to be granted it. They are both alive and well.

Saotome Haruna never married. She was the beloved aunt and great-aunt to the swaths of the children of her brothers, but never found the right person for herself. Still, this left her lots of time to pursue her work. She finally broke into manga when she was eighteen, first as an assistant to a well-known artist on the sequel to his tale of a fashionable judo girl, and eventually as an author and artist in her own right.

Her greatest work, for which she is still remembered to this day, was her multi-volume epic, _That Sort of Thing is Fine, But ..._ a semi-autobiographical work about an artist who starts out as a typical otaku and is gradually exposed to the harsh realities of most of the subjects he has used for manga in the past. (Most notably incest, but also the realities of gay and lesbian activities when contrasted with yaoi and yuri depictions.) Its ending is unfortunately somewhat prophetic of Haruna's own fate - the artist ends up alone, isolated from former friends, unable to really enjoy the things he once did, and gravely depressed. Her death in 2042 was officially ruled an accident.

I don't know if Sasaki Makie ever learned of her true origins. Frankly, I hope for the sake of her innocence, which she still seemed to possess even at the 2012 Olympics where she brought the gold home to Japan, that she didn't. Nor do I know anything about her relationship with a certain group of slime-girls. I don't believe that it's any of my business. Her last public appearance was in 2056, when she was the head coach for the Japanese team at the last Olympic games. I believe that she's still alive, but I haven't checked too closely. As I said, I value her innocence, and such can only be tainted through association with one who, through necessity, must often do very dubious and dangerous things in pursuit of her goals. I hope that she's still innocent, and I hope that she's happy. I allow myself a certain amount of romanticism, and that consumes much of it.

Of the cheerleader trio, Shiina Sakurako was the most hurt by their union's dissolution. I recall her as having a similar quality of innocence as Makie. But where Makie's innocence was natural, inasmuch as anything about her could be called natural, Sakurako's innocence was slightly abnormal, resulting as it did from her talent for probability manipulation. Shielded from the harsher realities of life as a result of unconscious use of this talent, she could afford to be innocent. But everyone's luck runs out eventually.

My readers, who are all so much cleverer than I am, will doubtless be expecting a tale of woe to follow. It is my delight to confound them. I am not entirely sure what happened to Saku for most of this century but I finally tracked her down in an assisted care facility in 2094. One leonization treatment to take care of her senility later, and I was able to recruit a probability manipulator in full control of her powers for my organization, and reconnect with a childhood friend. As I've said, I allow myself a certain measure of sentimentality.

Tatsumiya Mana graduated from high school with the rest of her class, took the bronze in the biathlon at the 2010 Winter Olympics, and then disappeared back into the underground, acting primarily as a bounty hunter in both this world and Mundus Magica. I'm sure that she is still alive, and it's for that reason that I won't say more about her activities ... that reason, and the fact that I at least, don't consider the debt I owe her to be fully paid as yet.

Were one strictly following the class register, the time would now have come to speak of the activities of Your Obt. Servant. But as I told you at the start of this account, this isn't my story. And besides, I'm sure that my readers wouldn't find my confessions of various criminal activities to be terribly interesting. The authorities are alas far more intrigued by such things.

Just about a year after all this, Nagase Kaede was informed that her parents had arranged for her to be married. (She was seventeen, having entered junior high school at fifteen, due to her training with her grandparents.) Her fiance was, like her, a descendant of the Koga shinobi; unlike her, he had not cultivated their skills. Obedient to her parents' wishes, she married him, and I believe that they were genuinely happy, most of the time - though I'm sure that her happiness was marred by certain events a few years later. But be that as it may, their first-born son was my maternal grandfather ...

... and the biggest pain in the figurative ass (not to mention my literal ass) that the space-time continuum has ever seen. I mean, really, if I believed in a god, I would really wonder what that entity was thinking, allowing a complete pervert to gain not only the ability to disguise himself as either gender so thoroughly that it keeps up even during vigorous sexual intercourse, but also the utterly impossible power to travel in time by meditation. Don't get me wrong, I am very fond of my grandfather, as he is well aware, even after he stole my innocence and also my first successful Cassiopeia in order to deliver the latter to ... well, we'll get to that eventually.

As with a few others in this account, I'm not certain of the fate of Kaede herself. She disappeared in the late 2030s, but the traditions of the Koga shinobi have undergone something of a renaissance in this century. It is entirely possible that her disappearance freed her to become an instructor in their arts. Or it's possible that she fell victim to some malevolent scheme or other. I have, reluctantly, grown accustomed to uncertainty. It's part of growing up, I suppose.

Naba Chizuru left Mahora with Ayaka when the latter did; unlike her, she did come back to finish her high school education, and became involved with various, shall we call them, family matters in the process. Her first loyalty, however, was always towards the woman who would eventually become her wife. They are both still very much alive, with several children and grandchildren, all involved in running the Yukihiro Financial Group.

However, I would note that her most important role is one that the world doesn't know about. One of the subsidiaries of their zaibatsu is a computer corporation that produces some of the world's finest personal low-sapience AIs. Their most popular model is a brand intended to provide a constant companion for young children. I'm sure that the reader has already guessed on whom this model's default avatar is based, as is much of her personality. It's impossible to say how many children all across the solar system have been gently but firmly raised by copies of Chizuru over the decades since this AI was first introduced. That's a contribution if ever there was one, and it keeps me from hating her or her wife too much.

This next section is every bit as hard for me to write as it will be for you to read.

The children I knew as Narutaki Fuka and Narutaki Fumika kept up their deception and their illicit relationship through junior high school and into their high school years. Disaster struck in their final year when they weren't able to keep their respective parents from discovering the truth abou their activities when they both visited on the same day. They were promptly pulled out of school and separated from each other. Some say that they were also rather harshly punished, but I suspect that what had been done to them was punishment enough.

It was certainly enough to drive them to an extremity that stunned not only their classmates but an entire nation. There was no sign of conspiracy, but both Fuka and Fumika quietly waited until their mutual eighteenth birthday, and then returned to their respective homes ... and bloodily murdered their parents and their parents' new spouses. They then called the police and turned themselves in. The crime, committed on their eighteenth birthday, earned them the death penalty, and five years later, it was carried out on Fuka ... and Fumika managed to hang herself in her cell within minutes.

Whenever I face an enemy in battle, I find myself wondering whether they were as innocent as those two crazy twins when they were a child. It doesn't stop me, because I can't allow it to stop me, but also can't stop wondering ... where did it all go wrong for them, that it has to end this way? It's too easy to blame it on the world, even for me.

Hakase Satomi, my dearest friend in that era, graduated from Mahora Academy Junior High School Division with the highest marks in the school's history, a record which has not, to my knowledge, ever been equaled or exceeded. I honestly believe that she could have graduated much sooner than she did, but she was more patient than I could ever be. She switched to correspondence-based schooling for her high school education, mostly to allow her to spend more time with the baby girl to whom she gave birth nine months after the near-destruction of Mahora.

Her daughter, Negi's first-born daughter, was my maternal grandmother.

Immediately on her high school graduation, she was hired by a company fascinated by her work in the creation of artificial intelligence, and began a long career with that company. This didn't work out very well for her, I'm afraid. Details are a little hard to come by, but she almost certainly died in 2033, when her employers' offices in Chicago, where she was working at the time, were destroyed by a bombardment from an orbital particle beam satellite. There is a certain irony in that, I suppose, but it's not one that I find I can appreciate. Her body was never recovered, though neither were those of the majority of the dead in that cataclysm. If one were hopeful, one could believe that she found a way to escape.

Hope is an ambivalent quality.

Hasegawa Chisame spent most of her weekends over the next year at home with her mother, who gave birth to a younger brother fairly soon after all of this. (This came as a complete surprise to her co-workers, who hadn't known she was pregnant, or even dating anyone. My readers, who are so much more clever than I am, will doubtless have guessed what really happened.) Negi and Chachamaru also spent a fair amount of time in the Hasegawa home, playing with the infant Nara. He turned out to be a rather talented wizard, to everyone's shock and surprise. It was he who commissioned the theft of my first Cassiopeia, and proceeded to use it to fill in several blank spots in history - most notably being the one to show up to save a certain young boy and then give him a certain wand.

His ... older sister, let's call her, eventually got used to the idea that the man she loved was never going to put her first, and learned to love him anyway. (Despite being completely willing to smack him around whenever she thought he was being stupid.) In 2081, diagnosed with a terminal cancer that couldn't be treated by even the most advanced medicine or magic available to her, she chose to either end her life or transform her consciousness, depending on one's point of view, and became a 'ghost', existing as a program in cyberspace. Those who love her accept her despite her transformation.

Evangeline A.K. McDowell died. And what of her distant cousin Kitty McDowell, who transferred into the elementary school division of Mahora Academy at the start of the next school year? Patience, gentle reader, all will be revealed in due time.

Much like her dearest friend, Miyazaki Nodoka eventually abandoned the old world for the new. Unlike Yue, however, her life in that world was nothing like the course of honor at Ariadne. She became, or to be precise resumed her career as, an explorer of ruins, investigator of dark deeds, and all-around meddler. An adventurer was she, in other words. She knew incredible successes, and remarkable failures. I suspect that I would give my soul to be someone like her.

Her last public appearance was during the siege of Ariadne, shortly after Headmistress Yue's fall, when she employed incredible artifacts she had won somewhere to break through the Gorean lines and challenge the Lord of War with the words, "I don't care what your name is." According to the tale the descendants of the Goreans tell, the Lord of War chose this battle to be his last, after which he was taken to an eternal paradise of wine, women and song. Again, I doubt the official history, and I'd like to find Nodoka to get her version. But since she disappeared right after Yue's funeral, I'm a bit afraid of what I might find.

Murakami Natsumi's debut as Eponine in the Mahora High School production of Les Miserables was a little delayed by the destruction wreaked by that day in July. But she ultimately did take the stage, and, in her first leading role, won the hearts of audiences of all ages. She went on to a lengthy career in the theatre and in films, becoming one of the rising stars of Japanese entertainment.

And then, when she was just 27, she chucked it all to run away with her boyfriend. No one is completely sure what happened to them. One claim, which I must necessarily view as being not so implausible as most people would think, has them using some sort of time portal to travel back to the feudal era. Others say that she lived quietly alongside Kotaro as he became a travelling martial arts instructor. I haven't been able to learn their fates for certain, but I wish them well, whatever it was.

As one would expect, the destruction wreaked upon the academy and town made a number of the wealthier families with children attending the school seriously consider pulling them out of it. Some believed that this was what happened when Yukihiro Ayaka abruptly dropped out before the completion of her junior high school career. In fact, the reasons were simpler - her father was found dead of a cerebral embolism in his office, and someone needed to take over the running of her company.

With help from Chizuru and from her mother - who recovered from the 'illness' that had been killing her rather quickly once the person who'd been poisoning her all these years was dead - Ayaka quickly set out to do just that. Through the years of bubblegum crisis that defined Japan in the first part of the twenty-first century, she kept the Yukihiro Financial Group solvent and relevant. I would probably disapprove more if I wasn't still rather fond of the Iincho I remember. Ah, sentimentality.

Yotsuba Satsuki continued to grow her restaurant business, with the first Chao Bao Zi franchises appearing in her final year of high school. I suspect it wasn't easy for her to entrust even these copies of her store to other hands, but she managed. And she also managed to keep her relationship with Zazie Rainyday healthy at the same time, finally learning to balance a personal life and a professional one. Of course, I knew she had it in her.

She was my great-grandmother, after all.

It's funny, though. I have seen pictures of my paternal grandparents, and met those who knew them. My paternal grandfather was a kind-hearted man, very different from his father, while my paternal grandmother was as loving and as gentle as her biological mother. (Her biological father was Sasaki Makie's half-brother, Tatsuro, whose role in her conception was essentially that of a sperm donor.) I am sure that it was not their fault that their son was a monster. Perhaps it was no one's fault. Can a wind explain why it becomes a storm?

Be that as it may, Zazie Rainyday stayed with Satsuki for the rest of her life, which was long and happy. She only left after her funeral, in 2078. I suppose that I could find out what became of her after that, since I have good contacts among the mazoku. But even if I did, I'd never write it here, where anyone could read it. Zazie wouldn't like that.

And then at last we come to Negi Springfield, hurt but not broken by these events. I really think that he genuinely tried to keep his relationships platonic after this, but the thing about the platonic relationship is that its an ideal, and ideals generally don't survive contact with reality. He kept on at the grindstone of being a teacher until he finally learned that he'd long-since fulfilled this part of his training. Around the same time, Arika came back after a long absence to tell him that she thought that she'd found clues that told her where Nagi was. And then I showed up to help rescue him.

I suppose that I could tell you more about this, and about what happened during and after that adventure, but, well, you wouldn't find that all that interesting, I'm sure. The way we had to stop Niagara Falls for an hour in order to get at him? Nothing too dramatic about it. The battles against the people trying to stop us were kind of lame, honestly. And the orgy we had afterwards wasn't really all that erotic. Maybe I'll tell you about all that some other day.

Yes, Negi is still very much alive, and not nearly as old as he will lead you to think. (Rejuvenation treatments work just as well on magicians as they do on everyone else.) And he is happily married, to a girl who still prefers to be called Kitty, and follows the distinguished tradition of proper English gentlemen by having a mistress. I wouldn't dream of telling you what her name is, though I think it should be obvious. After all, broken hearts mend.

We find ourselves on opposite sides a great deal. It's understandable. I want to change the world, he likes it the way that it is. I respect his opinion, even if it is that of a fuddy-duddy. I suppose that somewhere in my heart, I still yearn to see if he's still all that, and that sometimes has led me to mistakes in the present, even as it led me down dangerous paths in the past.

In my youth, I wanted to test myself against the greatest heroes I had ever heard about. In my youth, I imagined that I could make the world a better place by forcing it into the confrontation between science and magic that has shaped our century much earlier than it would have been. In my youth ... I was a very foolish little girl.

But damned if I didn't have a good time.

I bow to the four corners of the world. May your days be pleasant and free of tax collectors, may your nights be peaceful save when you wish for disturbance, may your sons be strapping and strong, may your daughters be charming and attractive to proposals from gentlemen who live a great distance away, and may your lives be touched by the beauty that has graced mine and the courage it has been my privilege to witness.

Farewell.

 **Omake,** by Shadow Crystal Mage

From the Files of Chao Lingshen, Temporal Renegade  
Subject: Class-H Prime Multiverse External Universe 6904877

This universe first came to my attention when an accomplished but modest colleague of mine of an unequally rational and emotional nature happened to lose one of her classmates in it. The classmate in question is still recovering from the trauma.

I have since observed the universe personally and - after frantically going through my own genetic code, hijacking the Time Gates (during one of the periods its guardian had still not dealt with the fact Pluto was no longer a planet) to check on our Arika, and confirming that nothing like this had happened to her and that her father was definitely dead - have noted several points of interest. The outsider sees most of the game as they say, and my particular lifestyle and experience have allowed me to identify several persons of interest. I humbly submit my own research on the matter to my other accomplished but modest colleague.

Kotomine Kirei (I will not bother you with why I singled out the man) and his colleague Gendo, in the wake of the harsher scrutiny after Takahata Takamichi's dismissal, were soon fired, defrocked and excommunicated. This did not seem to bother Kotomine all that much. In his memoirs (which were banned in most countries with a large Christian population and used as a training manual by many terrorist cells), he stated that one's relationship with God was a personal matter, and one did not have to be one of God's chosen to be one of His children.

He left Mahora for Africa to perform missionary work. The distance gave him new anonymity, and he soon established himself as a charismatic cult leader. Such cults rarely end well. A hit was eventually placed on him, the contract fulfilled by Tatsumiya in 2014 after numerous failures by lesser operatives. Apparently he kept on wearing his Kevlar vestments.

His young colleague, Father Gendo, also left Mahora. He remained convinced of his radical interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, attaining doctorates in several disciplines and spent much time lobbying for funding. He was eventually hired by LexCorp, that wretched hive of scum and villiany, where he can be positively identified as the cause of at least three possible "end of the world" incidents. At each instance, he was awarded Employee of the Year.

Nun-in-training Caren Ortensia moved on to be a real nun and a full member of her order. She went in to have a highly successful but scandalous career as an exorcist. Much of the scandal rose from her choice of Ministra, one Mido Miko of the Miroku clan in ninja.

Ikari Yui left the order when she found out she was pregnant with twins nine months after the incident in Mahora. Her family were of little help, and she was forced to raise the children alone. Though she tried her best, the pressure soon became too much for her, and she committed suicide. Her children where shunted along the foster system. They were eventually claimed by their father. Due to his being housed in Lex Corp housing, direct observation was not prudent, but there are indications they were experimented upon, and were involved in a bizarre incident described by many as a black hole.

The Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad continued to act as one of Mahora's student-protector groups. The group disbanded suddenly a year later upon the mysterious disappearance of one of their members. Investigations have been fruitless, even for me, though there is evidence of some form of "Stopped Time" phenomenon.

Rosette Christopher, her boyfriend Chrono and her Ministra Azmaria soon left Mahora to search for her missing brother. Sightings of her dot the world, but her trail ends in the demon realm. Her fate is unknown, but a boy claiming to be her brother arrived at Mahora, his memory blank except for his name, a description of his sister, and the knowledge that Sister Shakti was still owed by Rosette for totaling her car. He went on to train as a priest, with history repeating itself as he eventually wandered the world searching for her.

Tohsaka Rin and Sakura (no relation to the one who would one day call himself the Lord of War) graduated from Mahora and moved on to become mages, continuing to maintain a physical relationship. Medical records state that Sakura was born with Degradative Mana Syndrome, a condition where the subject, apparently, cannot naturally metabolize raw environmental mana, and need regular transfusions of already biologically processed magic to survive. I am unable to ascertain if this is the factual truth or an excuse to justify their behavior. With Rin, anything is possible.

They never participated in a Holy Grail War. They never met Emiya Shiro.

File End. Audacia Paula.

 **Omake,** by OverMaster

My name is Itoshiki Nozomu. And I suppose some would call me a fortunate man.

I have led a long, long life, with no signs of ending anytime soon. My physicians have determined that, despite my old age and my rather sorry physical state, my life signs show no signal of any degradation threatening of my continued existence. I have married twice, both times to beautiful younger women, and I have four intelligent, cultured and well respected children.

In truth, nothing is ever as simple. My life has been prolonged by an immortality curse set upon me since childhood. My wives were both former students of mine, and neither marriage has been exactly perfect (but then again, no marriage ever is). Only one of my children even speaks to me anymore.

And yet, I cannot feel as much despair as I used to. Not anymore. Even my emotions have withered down with old age. Now, I barely can muster more than a perennial gray melancholy. I cannot attempt suicide as often nowadays, being unable to climb up a tree to set a proper rope, or to hold a gun to my temple without my hands trembling far too much. And my wife frustrates most of my attempts anyway. Just like she did the first time we ever met, at Sakura Lane. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Through her experiences compiling information for this report of the incidents involving the last few weeks Class 3-A spent fully together, minus herself, of course, Chao Lingshen-san approached me for help, claiming to be too wrapped into other, shady businesses of her own to be able to handle all of the research. I am convinced she mostly did it out of pity for this poor old man, to make me feel useful again, but I humored her.

So, as she has exposed the eventual happenings in the lives of her classmates after that ominous day, I will chronicle what happened to the rest of the players mentioned through this dark drama.

Konoe Konoemon barely survived a few years more, dying roughly a year after Eishun's second marriage. The autopsies never could determine exactly what caused his demise, being so sudden and seemingly abrupt, but I suspect we all should have seen the signs coming up. The events of the Alladia fiasco, plus the HiME Festival the year after, took a heavy toll on him; not a physical one, but a much worse emotional one. To this day, I'm convinced the poor man died of a broken heart.

Eishun himself reached a rather old age, dying of natural causes one afternoon in his garden. His wife found the body near the koi pond. She quite never recovered, spending her last years in a retirement home, although surrounded by old friends from her time at some inn where she'd once lived.

I haven't been authorized by Asuna Hime-sama to reveal any info on the last few years of Takahata Takamichi.

Jack Rakan is, and I'm sure this should come as no surprise to you, still alive, of course. He's pretty much as healthy and vigorous as he was back then; I met him again last year, and when I asked him, astonished, how did he do it, he only laughed and told me "Even old age fears Rakan!" I have to agree. From some hints he dropped in our conversation, he still stays in semi-frequent contact with Tatsumiya-san, wherever she is now.

Fate Averruncus, formerly known as Tertium, lives on as well. Through the great war against the Gorean Hordes, his 'sibling unit' Quartum sided with the Lord of War, becoming his main enforcer, and choosing to use his newfound free will to unleash his worst desires, slaying and destroying at his pleasure. However, Fate-san and his two remaining siblings stood against him, being a key part on the defeat of the Gorean forces. Fate-san destroyed Quartum-san with his own hands, a fact he has never wanted to comment on ever since.

However, this defense of the Mundus Magicus population moved the masses, especially the younger ones, to acclaim the three last Averrunci as heroes, finally giving them acceptance from the same society they once had opposed. Though none of them was interested on fame and riches, they have used their influence to work for Mundus Magicus' well-being, staying together all to this day. I met them earlier this year, when I took my wife for her first trip to Mars. I had a brief interview with Fate, where he revealed he had, in fact, met Negi-sensei twice or thrice since Mahora's near-destruction. He didn't have much to say on the matter, but Sextum-san, smiling, commented he had been actually happy when he sparred with Negi-sensei again. His expression unchanged, Fate denied it.

The Averrunci have been rejoined by Fate's old partner Tamaki, who, due to the long lifespans of her race, seems to have been left just as young as they look. They refused to comment on the status of Fate-san's other Ministra, although I know for a fact that the ones called Shiori and Homura, at least, died long ago.

Dynamis remains a prisoner under custody of the new Megalomesembrian Senate, and has written several books during his long prison stay, all of them heavily censored by the authorities due to 'spreading dangerous ideas to the inhabitants of the whole world'. The rumors about him managing to direct several terrorist cells carrying on the ideals of Cosmo Entelecheia even from his imprisonment have not been confirmed at any point.

Anya Cocolova never married, although she had several extended relationships with other females. She became an expert combat mage, and even managed to research on and re-discover the long forgotten legendary spell known as the Drag Slave. However, she died bravely in battle against a demon lord around the Gotham area in 2036. Reportedly, her last word in her agony was "Negi."

LexCorp remained under intense observation by the magical community for the next few years. Its involvement with Alladia's schemes was well proven and known, by supplying the mad renegade with men, weaponry and resources. But in turn, Alladia had leaked secrets and resources of his own to LexCorp. Some of them apparently included information on several highly touching and delicate subjects our higher-ups would prefer to keep hidden at any and all costs.

So, eventually, the whole thing was simply swept under the rug. LexCorp president Lex Luthor would later run for an unsuccesful bid for the presidency of the United States, and a decade after that failed, he was reported dead in a private plane crash. They never found the body. Shortly after, a Lex Luthor the Second, apparently a son of his, reclaimed the company for himself, and he continues running it even today. As he grows old and identical to his 'father', I know Alladia's legacy, in a way, lives on. It will as long as evil men with the means to cheat death exist. If I were a believing man, I would pray for our future.

Hasegawa Sora, mother of Hasegawa Chisame, reportedly had, according to sources I'll keep hidden, a few sexual encounters of her own with the son of the man she had loved, often in company of her daughter. I will issue no judgements on the matter and simply comment they did a good job raising the young boy born in the middle of that unusual family unit.

She died in her sixty-eighth year, as an executive for the Fujimi, Morisato and Hasegawa company sponsoring car races all across the world. While researching for this writing, I visited her old home, now owned by a young woman named Skuld, seemingly a foreigner. She owned several pieces of strange techonology, many of them of her own design, but some with an unmistakable similarity to the designs of the supposedly late Hakase Satomi. While questioning her on the matter, she smiled and told me she could fill in the blanks of the stories of the classmates Chao had lost track of. She gave me that information, and while some of their cases did, indeed, paint better futures for them than I'd have expected, others were bleak enough to make me wish I'd never heard about them.

From what Skuld told me, she also was partially involved in the complex transference of Chisame-san's consciousness to what she called 'The Yggdrasil Code running through the Maginet, the Internet, and Different Frequencies you aren't even Aware of yet', but the explanation was so frankly complicated, I didn't understand a single thing.

Later, when I reported this to Chao, she seemed dubious before telling me she didn't want to hear the untold stories. I nearly fainted with relief. Some of those stories were nearly impossible for me to repeat, and some others were too optimistic for a sad old man like me to express them properly.

As for my Ministra, they all took separate paths after graduation. Kitsu Chiri, against all my expectations, rose above her mania and became the most beloved Prime Minister Japan has ever had. When she died in 2077, the whole country cried.

Kimura Kaere went off to study law at the Harvey Dent Legal School in Gotham, and enjoyed a highly succesful career for a while until she was shot dead in front of her home in 2029 by members of the Joker Gang.

Tsunetsuki Matoi grew disillusioned with me and married one of her old flames, one of the members of that ridiculous Ala Iridia club. I can't remember his name, but I seem to remember his nickname went ... Shadow Crystal something ... but it doesn't matter. I think they are still alive, and I also believe they had at least four children.

Otonashi Meru struggled past her vocal limitations to no avail. Forced by her controlling father into a loveless marriage, she eventually locked herself in her bathroom, sent a text message to the police, and sliced open her wrists. She was twenty-four then.

Kobushi Abiru was mauled by the last wild tiger alive in 2043. The tiger was then shot.

Kaga Ai married a boy who had a crush on her all through high school, Kuniya Kino-kun. They married and had three daughters and five sons, since she never could say 'no' to him. I stopped receiving apology letters about everything she supposedly did to us during school three years ago, so I suppose she has died as well.

Hito Nami led a perfectly normal life, married a partner at her office job, had one son and a daughter, and died at the age seventy. Since the average life expectancy was considerably longer, I suspect that wherever she may be, she takes a certain pleasure in having been abnormal in at least one thing.

My sister, Itoshiki Rin, is still alive, and never married, although she still managed to give birth to a boy suspiciously similar to pretty much every male in the Itoshiki family. Before you accuse me of a vile crime, I'd like to repeat that I never engaged in those abominable actions with her, and even if I had, I had stopped doing them five years before my nephew was born. My other, older nephew Majiru, however, has lived with Rin and Kojiro-kun ever since.

I married Fujiyoshi Harumi in the spring of 2013, and soon we had our first and only son, Saburo, the only child of mine who remains in contact with me. Harumi reached extremely high pinnacles of fame as Japan's most controverted erotic manga artist, continuing all the way her frequent, bitter clashes with Saotome Haruna, and causing many an Internet flame war. However, when Saotome-san died, she was the person who cried the most in the funeral.

We divorced after six years of marriage; we loved each other too much, simply too much to continue making each other miserable. We continued being good friends, and she was the one who pushed me and Kafuka back together.

So, yes, I married Kafuka after that, and so we close this additional epilogue to the saga of our lives. When Harumi died in her sixty-third year, in a car crash, I cried, actually cried, like never before. And Kafuka cried too. It was the first time I ever saw her crying, she, who always had been so perfectly happy. We cried together, and then, in our mutual sadness, I felt complemented like never before.

I don't want to say I'm happy, because I'm afraid I'd lose my happiness right after saying it. Kafuka has caused me more problems than one person should ever cause any other, and she knows it. And yet, the only moments of something else than sadness and melancholy I ever have anymore are those when I'm looking into her eyes.

I suppose that's enough to make me, all in all, a fortunate man.

\- Itoshiki Nozomu, Headmaster of Mahora Academy.

 **Full Circle,** by OverMaster

And here we are now.

I feel like Sam returning to Hobbiton, in a way. I don't quite think any revisitation to the Decadent universe we may do from now on will have quite the same feeling now we have seen the future and what it holds for the gang, although I'm sure I'll be proved wrong. Again.

But before we start dwelling on that, let's look back at how it all started. As usual with my writing, I started with chance. Darkenning seems to leave much less to chance, and so does Shadow Crystal Mage as well, but I think I have a somewhat looser approach to writing. I'll have an idea, toss it around, and see where it rolls, then happily jumping after it. Decadent Habits just happened to be a tiny peeble I tossed, only to become a huge boulder as it rolled.

I just wanted to top everything I had written before when I wrote the original snippet. I was going for the crass shock value, I'll admit it, but hey, it was only a small comedy bit. I figured I could allow myself that much there. As I wrote it, then posted it in the TV Tropes Forum, I had everyone's reactions in the back of my mind. I was fresh off writing another controversial snippet, and I guess part of me just wanted to see how far could I go before being bathed with tar and feathers and run out of town. Much to my disappointment, the overall reaction was a few raised eyebrows and a couple posters saying "I already have seen worse."

I think I have spoiled my readers.

Or not, since someone took that dingy, dirty little idea and actually made something out of it. After I had enough snippets for the next chapter of More than Fifty Four Negi and Chisame Threesomes, I tossed Decadentin there without giving it too much thought. It raised more eyebrows in actual compilation form, and I didn't give it much thought. Life went on, until a couple weeks later or so, I got a message from someone I never had heard about before, some Darkenning chap.

He asked me if he could write a full fanfic out of the snippet's premise, saying he was deeply intrigued by it. I already was used to private messages asking for consents to write stories that never materialized, so I believed it'd be the same thing all over again. I shrugged and said, "Sure, why not." In any case, I don't believe in the property of a fanfic author over concepts that never were ours in the first place. Literally, I couldn't care less if any of you out there decides to write your own version of Unequally Rational and Emotional, unless you have Negi picking Makie's guts out with a meat cleaver, or some crap like that.

But I digress. Like I was saying, I figured that'd be the end of it. Again.

Two days later, I saw he had posted the first chapter. I thought it was a bit abrupt, to have Arika acting like that from the start, but overall, not bad at all. Still, I continued thinking it'd be left a dead fic after that chapter, because really, how do you top that?

I saw the next chapter the very next day.

Okay, the incredulous in me insisted, beginners are often like that (although damn, for a beginner, this guy writes well! Better than me, as a matter of fact! Argh! The mirror is speaking to me, and I'm not the fairest in the kingdom anymore!). Surely, I reasoned, he's only experiencing the eagerness and vitality of the first attempts. But it couldn't last that long, that eternal inner pessimist went on...

The third chapter was posted the next day.

I was starting to realize this boy might just mean business.

The next chapters never quite reached that fast posting rate, after they became more complex and longer, but they still were coming out far faster than my own output. I needed to do something to reassure myself I could play in that same ballpark too, not to mention I just like to write Chisame and had the best idea ever to screw her over in that story's context, so I asked Darkenning to guest-write a Chisame chapter.

The original snippet was plain and simple, and so was this epic at the start. It was just a reunion of a few of the (very) few Negima characters with parental figures (and Setsuna, who has this contractual obligation to show up wherever Konoka is), all of them either aristocratic or at least well respected and placed in society, indulging into Decadent Habits behind locked doors. Including Asuna, to be honest, despite her family ties to Negi, never crossed my mind at first, and I admit I felt weird seeing Darkenning was giving her a major role. So what did I do? I included Chisame, who had even less to do with the original setup. Yeah.

I liked writing that chapter, so I soon asked for the chance to write an Akira one. I can imagine Darkenning's sigh while he wrote back saying that yes, I could include yet another character who had nothing to do with the original premise. It also gave me the chance to flesh the Yuna smut out, because the perv in me kept moaning there hadn't been enough Yuna hotness, and while the fact I was writing her with her dad for longer than a mere snippet indeed did bother me a bit, I coped because hey, Yuna.

You know you love Yuna's hawtness too. It should be made obligatory by law.

But again, I digress. I distanced myself a bit after that, cackling as I sat back and watched poor Darkenning trying to cope with all the out of left field twists I had left him with...

He made longer, more complex, deeper chapters out of it, and without having to include dozens of crossover guest stars, and more importantly, much faster than me! Curses! Foiled again!

Even Shadow Crystal Mage was writing for him! I couldn't keep on sitting back, so I asked for a Zazie/Satsuki chapter. Because I thought Satchan got a really raw deal in her own chapter, and because the coupling was so random I figured that someone would have to comment on it, and I'd laugh, seeing my infinite evil genius would be recognized, standing out even in the middle of Dark's intense drama...

No one wrote saying "Wow, Zazie/Satsuki had never been done before".

I cried into my pillow for days ...

Once recovered from the harrowing trauma, I wrote a Mana side chapter sporting some hideous grammar mistakes that hopefully will serve as an example for future generations to never write a chapter in a hurry. Still, it was pure fun, and I got some really colorful and amusing comments from it when the link was posted elsewhere, so it's all good.

Then I wrote my favorite chapter to do ever, the Chachamaru one. Not only it allowed me to indulge into my ever present itch to write more SZS, but Chisame/Negi/Satomi! The Over Master Nirvana! If I don't end the Unequally saga like that chapter, then hunt me and shoot me down, okay? Because it'll mean I'll have lost my helm at life.

The final chapter I wrote, the Fate one, was the hardest one to do, and other than the first part, which flowed out easily, I'm not sure I like the final result. But then I got to squeeze more SZS in the final chapter and the Epilogue, and that makes me an easy man to please.

And, again, here we are.

Thanks, Darkenning, for making a boulder out of my peeble. At first, I thought the premise wouldn't work as well as the one for the similarly themed Complicated Bloodline, but thanks for proving me wrong. I still may dislike some details of the whole, like the overall feeling of Kaede's chapter, or the resolution of the Konoka-Setsuna conflict, and the mass bridge dropping of the epilogue, but then I re-read things like Arika in The Bride's jumpsuit, or the horrible yet fittingly hilarious final fate of Chachazero and Chamo, and the sheer hideous and chilling revelation of Nekane (troubling as it is with regard to her age), which is so effective in its terror, and everything, everything, is more than worth it.

It's not a pretty story. Certainly it's NOT a story for everyone. It's not my story anymore. And yet, it's better than anything I've written. Well, 'cept for the bits I wrote. But in any case, I have no regrets regarding it.

So, a cheer for you, Decadent Habits, you gorgeous monster. Standing next to the campfire, I lift my glass for you.

Thanks for everything.

Now, if only someone wrote a multiparter on Only Sane Man...

 **Co-Author's Note,** by Shadow Crystal Mage

Besides general encouragement on the forum during writing, I only contributed two things to this: the chapter featuring Fuuka and Fumika and the Misora and extras (not counting the SZS crew) bits during the final battle. Great as this fic was, I felt it was too dark to be Negima. Even the despair spots in the manga had Dynamis hamming out and Chisame hanging lampshades like they were going out of style.

So when The Professor took me up on my offer to write the twins chap, I did my best to try to lighten the mood without derailing the story. I did my thing, throwing in offhand crossovers and short segments of silliness (to my knowledge, Chachamaru still does not know who keeps sending kittens adrift in boxes). Then I ended it with as much sugary fluff as I could, to try and prove that a heavily lemon incest story need not be purely carnal. I'm rather fond of Fuuka and Fumika's resolution. You have NO idea how much I wanted to kick someone's ass for how they ended up.

Misora's segment rose from the amusing though of how exactly Misora would react to her and Cocone being in an emergency without anyone to play hero for them. And crossover opportunities, of course. The Professor cut out the scenes were Harry Dresden and Tommy tbe green/white/red/black ranger were at the church, FYI. The marriage proposal was because I thought the nuns are a cute couple. I am absolutely devastated they don't get married.

So in closing, so long and thanks for all the fish! Remember the cardinal truths of being a Negima fan: Everyone us shota/gay/straight for Negi; Akamatsu DID THE RESEARCH; and NEGIMA IS LOVE. Take care, don't do drugs, and don't indulge in any "decadent habits". And if you must, stick with cousins and make it consensual.

Audacia Paula!


	40. The Parodies

**Decadent Hobbits** \- by OverMaster

"Mother ..."

"Yes, Negi?"

"I appreciate your efforts to ... educate my class and myself in all of the, ah, tenderly intimate techniques you master so well ... and I value your message of being open to contact with all the fair races that inhabit this world, but - "

"To the point, please, Negi. Waste no time and words with vague preambles."

"Well, it's just I'm not so sure about initiating contact with these small creatures. It feels like we are corrupting their prior peaceful lifestyle."

"HEEEEY, NEGI-KUNNNN!" Haruna called out. "Check this out! These lil' guys aren't THAT little everywhere! Boy, this second trip through Mundus Magicus is even better than the first one!"

"B-But Uncle Bilbo, we MUSTN'T!" one of them was crying.

Somewhere else, at the nearby mountains, Chamo was nervously puffing on a cigarette. "It all got too freaky even for me, so I had to hightail it outta there. Damn, I'm almost out of cigarettes. Ne, Gandalf-sama, got one of those long pipes I can use?"

The old mage sitting at the other side of the campfire sighed and offered him one. "I believe this world has just met a force of corruption even worse than the One Ring ..."

* * *

That made me laugh my fool head off. I'm easily amused. But it also got me to thinking about ways that I could bring the Decadent Habits style to other series, such as, just off the top of my head, the Mahou Sensei Nerima series by Japanese Teeth, which reverses the sexes of all the series characters. I was sure that the results would be something to behold.

* * *

 **Decadent Habits, Nerima Style** \- by Darkenning

"Youngsters nowadays," Akashi sighed, lying flat on her back.

"Yes," Asana panted, gathering her strength back up. "Then again, it's not like we've any right to talk. We're going along with it, after all."

"Hey, it was your son's idea," the teacher replied.

"Yours was very quick to support it!" the swordswoman countered.

Lying between them, hands behind his head, Arik hummed. "Well. If there's anything my years of captivity taught me, it's that there's no low we humans won't sink down to. But it's better to take it in stride. Ready, Nelly?"

The ten year old girl nodded, grabbing her father's abs with some residual shyness. "Y-Yes, Sir! Are you - ?"

Yuno snickered, mounting his gulping mother. "He looks that way from here! Hey, Kon! We trade places after this, don't we?"

"Sounds good, " Kon smiled, getting himself comfortable within Asana. "But what about Nelly-chan?"

Nelly was already huffing, bouncing back and forth in a steady rhythm, grabbing onto her father's firm hard pecs, her eyes nearly rolling back into her head. "Don't ... worry about me. I think ... I'll go for a ... repeat with Daddy ... right after this ..."

"That's my little girl," Arik purred, running a hand through her hair, then pulling on it, making her moan.

Setsuhiko finished stripping down and sighed while sitting beside Asana's head. "Perhaps it'd have been for the best if Cosmo Entelecheia had rewritten us," he mused regretfully, even as her tongue began to caress her hardness, making his skin crawl all over.

But then Kon leaned ahead and claimed his lips, and all protests were forgotten.

* * *

It got me beaten up, is what it did. I don't understand it, it's the same lines, but when you switch it around, people get upset, and ... oh, well, it got people thinking ...

* * *

 **Decadent Habits, Nanoha Style** \- by OverMaster

"Youngsters nowadays..." Nakajima Genya sighed, lying flat on his back.

"Yes..." Takamachi Shiro panted, gathering his strength back up. "Then again, it's not like we're in any right to talk. We're going along with it, after all..."

"Hey, it was your daughter's idea," the commander replied.

"Yours was too fast to support it!" the former bodyguard countered.

Resting between them, her legs spreaded, Lindy hummed. "Well. If there's something my years of military service taught me, it's there's no low we humans won't sink down to. But it's better to take it in stride. Ready, Chrono-kun?"

The boy nodded and gasped, straddling the woman's lap warily and grabbing her hips with some residual shyness. "Y-Yes, Captain! Are you...?"

Subaru giggled, crawling over her gulping father. "She looks that way from here! Hey, Nanoha-san! We trade places after this, don't we?"

"Sounds good, " Nanoha smiled, getting herself comfortable over Shiro's lower body. "But what about Chrono-kun?"

Chrono already was huffing, bouncing up and down in a steady rhythm, grabbing onto his mother's also bouncy, bountiful round breasts, his eyes nearly rolling back into his head. "Don't... worry about me. I think... I'll go for a... repeat with Mother... right after this..."

"That's... my boy..." Lindy purred, running a hand through his hair, then pulling on it, making him moan.

Fate finished stripping down and sighed while sitting on Shiro's face. "Perhaps it'd have been for the best if I had stayed in that fantasy the Book of Darkness made for me..." she mused regretfully, even as his tongue began to caress her private folds, making her skin crawl all over.

But then Nanoha leaned ahead and claimed her lips, and all protests were forgotten.

Elsewhere at the hills, Yuuno sighed and sat down around the campfire with Chamo and Gandalf. "It's spreading..." he reported ruefully.

Teana took a nearby spot, fingering her guns angrily. "Not fair... Rainbows were supposed to be straighter than her ... I'm going to kill that lousy Over-Bum..."

The Joker pushed Yuuno aside and sat down as well, pulling out some marshmallows to roast. "No matter what happens, they'll never get me alive..."

* * *

 **Decadent Habits, Mai-HiME Style** \- by Darkenning

"Youngsters nowadays..." Kanzaki Reito sighed, lying flat on his back.

"Ye-- actually, that line doesn't make much sense in this context," Tate Yuuichi panted, gathering his strength back up. "We're not that much older. And anyway, it's not like we're in any right to talk. We're going along with it, after all..."

"Hey, it was your sister's idea, " the student council vice-president replied.

"She's not really my sister! And yours was too fast to support it!" the kendo champ-turned-reformed delinquent countered.

"Yes, Shiho is oniisama's sister!" Shiho shouted. "Shiho has found out that oniisama's papa did ecchi with Shiho's mama nine months before Shiho was born!"

"... oh, crap."

Resting between them, her legs spreaded, Mai hummed. "Well. If there's anything recent horrific events have taught me, it's there's no low we humans won't sink down to. But it's better to take it in stride. Ready, Takumi?"

The boy nodded and gasped, straddling the woman's lap warily and grabbing her hips with some residual shyness. "Y-Yes, neechan! Are you...?"

Mikoto giggled, crawling over her gulping brother. "She looks that way from here! Yum! Oi, Shiho! We trade places after this, yes?"

"Not a chance in hell, " Shiho growled, getting herself comfortable over Yuuichi's lower body. "Go trade off with Mai if you're minded that way!"

"Fine by me!" Mikoto said, openly salivating. "But what about Takumi-kun?"

Takumi already was huffing, bouncing up and down in a steady rhythm, grabbing onto his sister's bouncy, bountiful, abundant, shiny, round, large, and a few more adjectives besides, breasts, his eyes nearly rolling back into his head. "Don't... worry about me. I think... I'll go for a... repeat with neechan... right after this..."

"That's... my little brother..." Mai purred, running a hand through his hair, then pulling on it, making him moan.

Midori finished stripping down and sighed while sitting on Yuuichi's face. "Well it's about time I got my ashes hauled!" she said cheerfully. "I'm so glad we found out that Shiho and I are cousins! I mean, it's not that surprising, given that we have the same red hair and all," she observed, even as his tongue began to caress her private folds, making her skin crawl all over.

"What are you doing to my Oniisama!" Shiho shouted.

But then Midori leaned ahead and claimed her lips, and all protests were forgotten.

Elsewhere at the hills, Shizuru stalked up to the fire in her kimono and sat down with a truly ferocious pout on her face.

"Um ... so I take it you haven't discovered that you're related to Natsuki?" Yuuno asked delicately. "Considering that there's nothing revealed about her father, there was a chance "

"No, " Shizuru pronounced carefully. "It appears that mah Natsuki has decided to engage in gross perversion with Nao, Nao's mother and her own mother!"

"... wait, isn't her mother dead?" asked Teana.

"The author is mixing in manga elements on top of everything else! And shut up, your voice reminds me of someone on mah shit list!"

"Man, mixing variant continuities. Is there any low these people won't sink to?" asked the Joker, shaking his head.

Everyone stared at him.

"What, I'm not allowed hypocritical humor?"

* * *

 **Decadent Habits of 2814** \- by Shadow Crystal Mage

A long, long happy squeal rent the air.

A minute later, Illya ran past, an ecstatically happy Kuro in pursuit.

"Come back, 'onee-chan'!" Kuro cried happily, waving around the script. "Look, it's in the script and everything!"

"I don't care!" Illya cried.

"But it says we also have to do it with Shiro-oniichan!"

Illya came to an abrupt halt. "Well, if the script says it must be so, it must be so!" Illya declared dramatically. "The show must go on!"

Nanoha clapped her hands together. "Ah, it's so nice to see family getting along and bonding," she said obliviously. "Just like how Kyouya-niichan and Miyuki-neechan always hang out together, doing exercise..."

Fate raised an eyebrow. "Exercise?" she said disbelievingly.

"Well, when they're done, they're always tired and sweaty..." Nanoha said. "What else could it be?"

Fate sighed. "And there doesn't seem to be any chance Shiro-san is my dad..."

Someone tugged on Fate's cape. She turned.

"Fate-imouto..." Alicia said, the younger loli holding up her copy of the script.

Fate drooped some more. "Oh yeah, you're in this story too... I forget..."

Alicia pouted. "Imouto-chan! What a mean thing to say to your big sister!" Her green cloak appeared as she tapped into her Spectre-ness. "Naughty-naughty, Fate-chan... you must be... punished..."

Sakura blinked. "Really Tomoyo?"

Tomoyo nodded, smiling her saintly, mysterious smile . "It's a bit obscure, but apparently, we're cousins, so according to the script, we have to join in."

Sakura frowned. "Join in what?"

Tomoyo whispered in her ear. Sakura's eyes went wide, and steam began to blow from her ears. "'HOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEE!"

Negi sweatdropped. "I thought this was supposed to be my fic..."

Asuna and Chao shuffled. "Well, I would, but I have character development to do first..." Asuna said.

Chao coughed. "I sorta already have my eye on another girl..."

"DADDY!" Tsukuyomi cried, running holding a roll of duct tape, and lubricant.

The Joker kept running. "Sorry, Cutey Pie!" he called a back. "But even THIS evil has standards!" And so he ran to join Tea, Gandalf, Yuuno, Chamo and other Joker at the campfire.

"'Sup, " he said.

"'Sup, " Joker said. "S'mores?"

"Don't mind if I do."

* * *

 **Decadent Shihakusho** \- by Iniquitus the Third

Ichigo lay back panting, hazy eyes looking over at his father. "...Was that really what mother would have wanted us to do?"

On his other side, Grand Fisher (thankfully not in the form of a furred abomination of nature) in Masaki Kurosaki's form drew a slow finger over her son's cheek. "You don't know how sure I am, " she purred. At the foot of the bed, Karin and Yuzu smiled gently and snuggled together, looking far too innocent in sleep for what they'd just done.

In the next bed over, Isane Kotetsu was rocking gently from side to side while whimpering. Her sister, Kiyone Kotetsu, bare as the day she was... reincarnated?... placed a worrying hand on her shoulder. "Hey, what's wrong? Wasn't it good for you?"

Isane looked more than a little terrified. "What's Unohana-taichou gonna do when she finds out I was unfaaaaithfuuuul?", she wailed and threw herself into the arms of her sister, who purred and stroked her back.

"Oh, sis, I'm sure I can make you forget about that for another hour..."

Uryu grasped his left shoulder with a wince. "Oi, Ryuuken, can you see what's wrong with my arm? It... feels like it's about to come off..."

Ryuuken lit a second cigarrette and placed it into his mouth alongside the ever-present first one. "Uryu: shut up, stop making obscure fandom jokes and take five minutes to recover. I haven't finished your checkup yet..."

Orihime sighed and shifted so that her voluminous breasts weren't being squished against the mattress anymore. "And here I'd hoped that the author'd forgotten about you, nii-san." Sora Inoue poked his mask and tried to say something completely in-character and situationally appropriate, but failed on account of being a Hollow.

Orihime peered at the fourth wall. "...Then did I just sleep with a cannibalistic monster with no visual genitalia?"

The author chooses to focus the brainpower required to answer this question into remembering other familial relationships.

"Pah. Like your fellow authors will even choose to acknowledge this story. The plot died ages ago, and their dislike for our story is quite justified," Aizen smirked as he placed a possessive hand on a gasping Ulquiorra's bare chest.

"...What the hell are you doing here, you hack?" Mayuri snapped, annoyed from being distracted from his current experiment, viz, checking how Nemu would respond to stimuli of all kinds. "You don't even have a distant cousin in canon!"

Aizen smirked again. "How long have you been under the impression that --"

He was cut off by virtue of being hit in the face by a sock, thrown with expert decision by Kuukaku. Said woman immediately returned to grinning sadistically at her brother, who lay spreadeagled beneath her. "Now then, brother, how many times does the next round make it, all up?"

Ganju looked up panickedly. "You know I can't count past fifty, sis!"

Chad only looked at his transformed clawlike hand and wondered if masturbation still counted if the spirit of a family member was apparently in the arm used for the deed.

Meanwhile, Hisana and Rukia slowly tiptoed out of the room, trying to avoid detection before --

"Dammit, " Rukia grumbled. "He noticed us."

"It was to be expected, little sister, " sighed Hisana, even as another bed popped into existence just for them.

Rukia threw a loaded glance at Byakuya. "Oi, Nii-sama, why aren't you joining in?"

The collected noble sipped from a teacup. "I have no on-screen relations."

"I call you Nii-sama. That means Brother, for goodness' sakes!"

One elegant index finger rose up. "Not blood siblings."

"Frigging copout, " Szayel groaned from the corner.

Tatsuki sat down next to Gandalf, Yuuno, Chamo, Joker, Tea and other Joker around the campfire.

They all looked at her.

"...He's going to do Naruto next, isn't he?"

She could only nod, rocking back and forth in the fetal position.

* * *

 **Decadent Ninjas** \- by Darkenning

"Youngsters nowadays," Hyuuga Hiashi sighed, lying flat on his back.

Gaara didn't bother to respond to that, as he lay panting, gathering his strength back up. A silent glare in the clan head's direction suggested, however, that the Fifth Kazekage believed that had no right to talk, as they were going along with it.

"Hey, it was your sister's idea," Hiashi replied.

"What about your daughter?" the former host of the one-tailed shukaku countered quietly.

Resting between them, her legs spread, Kushina hummed. "Well. If there's something my years as a ninja, my painful death, and my resurrection by an absurd deus ex machina taught me, it's there's no low we humans won't sink down to. But it's better to take it in stride. Ready, Naruto-kun?"

The boy nodded and gasped, straddling the woman's lap warily and grabbing her hips with some residual shyness. "B-believe it! Are you...?"

Hinata sighed, crawling over her gulping father. "She looks that way from here!" she said with a hint of sadness and jealousy. "Um, Temari-san? We trade places after this, don't we?"

"Sounds good," Temari smiled, getting herself comfortable over Gaara's lower body. "But what about Naruto-kun?"

"That's what I meant -" Hinata started to say.

Her words were drowned out. Naruto already was huffing, bouncing up and down in a steady rhythm, grabbing onto his mother's also bouncy, bountiful round breasts, his eyes nearly rolling back into his head. "Don't... worry about me. I think... I'll go for a... repeat with Mother... right after this..."

Hinata made a mewling noise.

"That's... my boy..." Kushina purred, running a hand through his hair, then pulling on his whiskers, making him moan.

Kankuro finished stripping down and sighed while sliding his hardness up into Temari's unoccupied hole.. "At least the author's not making me do any yaoi stuff, unlike some people," he mused regretfully, even as Temari began to shake from the sensation of her double penetration.

Over to one side, Sasuke was violently sodomizing Itachi's reanimated corpse. "Oh yeah? Who's the uke now, huh? Who's the uke now!" he screamed. For his part, Itachi, who'd been violently sodomized by far more skilled people, was enjoying a quiet nap.

Haruno Sakura wandered up to the campfire with a stricken look on her face.

"Well, at least you don't have any relatives in canon," Teana offered up as consolation.

"But I want some!" Sakura howled, making everyone facefault. "It's bad enough that I usually get left out of the harem fics or even killed off, but this? When everyone's getting some, I have to come and hang out with you losers!"

"Hey!" said the Jokers.

* * *

 **Decadent Habits, Ah! My Goddess style** \- by OverMaster

"Youngsters nowadays..." Hild sighed, lying flat on her back.

"What are you talking about?" Urd groaned while rubbing up and down against her. "This was your idea from the start!"

"Well, you didn't put that much of a resistance, Urd-chan!" her mother countered.

"I only agreed because I thought it'd bring Keiichi and Belldandy closer together! You never mentioned anything about the rest of this!"

"Bwa ha ha ha!" her mother laughed quite demonically. "That's what you get out of not reading the fine print in a demon contract! Really, Urd-chan, YOU of all people should have known better! And don't act as if you don't like it! You've climaxed five times already!"

"That's not to be discussed either now or here!"

Resting near them, her legs spreaded, Belldandy hummed sweetly. "Well... If there's anything my time here on Earth has taught me, it's there's no low humans won't sink do Sorry, that was someone else's version of this dialogue. What I mean is, we all should love each other equally. Isn't that right, Skuld?"

Her younger sister nodded eagerly straddling the older goddess' lap not so warily and grabbing her hips with some residual... no, actually, nothing of shyness at all. "Whatever you say, Sister! Are you ready...?"

Megumi giggled, crawling over her gulping brother. "She looks that way from here! Yum! Hey, Urd! We trade places after this, yes?"

Urd thought it over. "... Give me two more rides with Mom first, okay?"

"See, you like it!" Hild pointed out.

"Shut up and put that big mouth to a better use!"

Chisame backed against the wall as Sora closed in on her. "Wait, I'm not even a character from this series!"

"Hmmmm, " Sora purred, in a tone that was quite pointing of her drunkness. "I'm your sister in an universe, your mother in another, and that's enough for me, Chiu-chan..."

"Th-That's only fanon! It's not approved by either Akamatsu or Fujishima!"

"Oh, but here comes the seal of approval..." Sora slurred, then pressing her lips against Chisame's.

The younger girl ended up surrendering to that logic.

At the hills, Tamiya huffed, dropping his huge muscular body between Yuuno and Teana. "Dem elitists won't let me in... IT'S NO FAIR!" he bawled. "I'm a man wit' needs too!"

"Hey, aren't you a duo act with another dumb big gorilla?" one of the Jokers asked. "Where is he?"

Tamiya blew his nose off. "He's in dat Hinata place. His name's Aoyama Ootaki, yuh remember?"

"Oh," they all said.

Yuuno handed him a bag. "Marshmallows?"

"Thank ya."

* * *

 **Harry Potter and the Decadent Habits** \- by Darkenning

"Youngsters nowadays..." Arthur Weasley sighed, lying flat on his back.

"Yes..." Doctor Granger - who doesn't have a first name in canon, so let's call him, hm, let's be utterly cliched and call him Daniel - panted, gathering his strength back up. "Then again, it's not like we're in any right to talk. We're going along with it, after all..."

"Excuse me, it was your daughter's idea, " the magical bureaucrat replied.

"Yours was too fast to support it!" the dentist countered.

Resting between them, her legs spreaded, Narcissa Malfoy hummed. "Well. If there's something my life has taught me, from the beginnings of my sexual education alongside my sisters at the hands of our father when we were each three years old, through the years of incest and cruelty at the hands of Bellatrix and Andromeda, and my marriage to a depraved bisexual like Lucius who pimped me out to his fellow Death Eaters, it's that there's no low wizards won't sink down to. And of course Muggles are all scum anyway."

Exchanging uncomfortable glances, Daniel and Arthur tried to edge away from her. It wasn't easy, and they didn't get too far.

Paying them no heed, Narcissa continued, "But it's better to take it in stride. Ready, Draco-kun?"

The boy nodded and gasped, straddling the woman's lap warily, the belt buckle of his leather pants jingling, and grabbing her hips without a trace of hesitation. "Yes, mother dearest! Are you...?"

Ginny giggled, crawling over her gulping father. "She looks that way from here! Hey, Hermione! We trade places after this, don't we?"

"Sounds good," Hermione smiled, getting herself comfortable over Daniel's lower body. "But what about Draco?"

Draco already was huffing, bouncing up and down in a steady rhythm, grabbing onto his mother's also bouncy, bountiful round breasts, his eyes nearly rolling back into his head. "Don't... worry about me. I think... I'll go for a... repeat with Mother... right after this..."

"That's my boy," Narcissa purred, running a hand through his hair, then pulling on it, making him moan. "Just like that time, right after Lucius' arrest, when you had Crabbe, Goyle and Parkinson over ... both of us girls, taking all three of you in all of our orifices, over and over again ... such a pleasant weekend ... I remember eating all three of you out of her vulva ..."

"... Jesus Christ," muttered Mrs. Granger who also doesn't have a first name in canon, so again let's be cliched and name her Emma as she finished stripping down and sighed while sitting on her husbands face. "Perhaps it'd have been for the best if that memory erasure spell you put on us never wore off..." she mused regretfully, even as his tongue began to caress her private folds, making her skin crawl all over.

But then Hermione leaned ahead and claimed her lips, and all protests were forgotten.

Back at the ever growing collection of campfires, an angry young man with a very distinctive scar on his forehead marched up.

"Oh, come now, what are you doing here?" Gandalf asked reproachfully.

"My parents are dead!" Harry hissed. (The Joker snickered metatextually.) "And unlike in some stories, they're not coming back, either! Which I find very, very unfair, given how much bending of canon these arseholes are willing to do. I mean, have you seen my mom?"

"Should we be expecting Ronald to show up?" asked Gandalf, who was really starting to look like Dumbledore in disguise.

"Since my canonical fiancee and mother of my children will be banging all of her brothers, including the ones who are into twincest, that would be a no! At least he turns into a Death Eater in this story."

"Wow, there's a shock," muttered Yuuno.

"What was that, ferret changeling!" Harry snapped.

"Hey, only Chrono gets to call me that!"

"Now calm down, we can't fight amongst each other!" said the recently arrived Jarvis Poker, the British Joker, played by Ian McShane. He then paused, and then said, "Who am I kidding, go nuts."

* * *

Of course, some series just didn't lend themselves to this sort of thing.

* * *

 **Decadent Azumanga** \- by OverMaster

"Well, none of us is related to the others..." Tomo scratched her head.

"Or has any on screen siblings or parents..." Kagura nodded.

"Do I count?" Chiyo-chichi appeared right behind Chiyo.

"HELL NO!" Yomi quickly pushed him offscreen.

"We're so lucky, " Nyamo sighed.

"Hey, where's Yukari-sensei?" Tomo asked her.

The teacher shrugged. "She said she was going to her parents' apartment to... check on something..."

"Well, who's up for a visit to the fair, then?" Yomi smiled.

"Yay, fair..." Osaka said with a vacant smile, looking up from her decidedly decadent doodlings.

"We don't even have to worry about Yukari-sensei's driving! Man, this is a great day!" Kagura laughed.

"Sakaki-san...!" Kaorin clung to her crush's legs. "I'm your long lost twin sister!"

Tomo crassly slapped her away. "No, you aren't!"

Kimura-sensei then hovered over Kaorin's frame, holding a few documents up. "KA-O-RIIIIIN! The blood tests are up! KI-MU-RIN IS YOUR REAL FATHEEEER!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"... What's this all about?" Chiyo asked innocently.

"Nothing. Just move along, " Yomi gently pushed her ahead of herself, and away.

* * *

 **Decadent Bat-Habits** \- by OverMaster

"My parents are dead," Bruce Wayne sat before the campfire.

"My parents are dead too, and no way I'm touching Aunt Harriet, " Dick Grayson sat down next to him.

"Never met my father, my Mom died in childbirth," Killer Croc sat down as well.

"I have a brother in L.A., but he's just a faceless, incorporeal off panel entity only mentioned in a throwaway panel," the Ventriloquist took another spot.

"My parents died, I killed my grandmother," the Scarecrow joined the group.

"My parents died after tossing me to the sewers where I was raised by penguins," Oswald Cobblepot said. "No, just kidding on the last part, but still..."

"My parents died when I was a teenager. Never had any siblings," Poison Ivy shrugged.

"I'm a freaking ghost!" the Gentleman Ghost grumbled.

Joker sniffed. "THIS is why I love my Gotham turf!"

Alfred looked at the Batman. "By the way, Master, is Master Damian not -"

"With his mother," the Batman grimly said. "And grandfather."

"Huh," Chamo said.

A long, long, long silence.

"Say, I have tickets for the Knights' game tonight, " Joker said. "Anyone up for it? This camping's getting kinda boring. And crowded."

* * *

 **Decadent Rabbits** \- by OverMaster

Everyone stared just a bit oddly at the two bunnies, one pink, the other blue, taking their spots before the campfire. But then again, since the group so far included a talking ermine, a rubber pirate, a crocodile man, and several fanfic writers, the odd look lasted only a few seconds.

"So, you are..." Grim began.

"My name's Buster Bunny..." the blue bunny sighed.

"My name's Babs Bunny..." the pink one shared the sigh.

"No relation!" they bawled into each other's arms.

Joker muttered something not so nice.

"Um, just 'cause your not related, it doesn't mean yuh can't do... dat... if yuh want," Tamiya pointed out.

The bunnies blinked. "Really?"

"Really," Teana nodded, keeping a sour face.

They jumped up gleefully and ran together deep into the woods.

Joker turned to Bugs Bunny. "This is why no one can replace you, pal!"

Bugs shrugged and munched on a carrot. "If ya say so, Doc..."

* * *

 **Decadent Nadesico** \- by OverMaster

Captain Misumaru Yurika grumbled as she set herself over Admiral Misumaru's lower body.

"I can't believe I'm the only one here with a family!" she grumbled.

The Nadesico crew, all of them but Ruri and Aoi Jun sitting at the sidelines eating nachos and pop corn, looked at each other and shared a collective shrug of shoulders.

"I do have a family at Earth, but getting away from them one of the main reasons I joined this ship," Seiya explained.

"Onii-chan was my only family, and now he's, you know..." Yukina trailed off with a heavy sigh. "Are you two going to do it, or not?"

"Ruri-chan has a biological family, yeah, but... too young and innocent, you know. Even Over Master has standards," Hikaru added.

Yurika sobbed as she lowered herself. "And you, Akito! Aren't you going to say anything? Aren't you going to show your true feelings? Or even join in?"

Tenkawa Akito made a cynical snort, with Megumi hanging from an arm and Ryoko from the other. "For the last time, we don't have any chemistry, Yurika! If the writers aren't forcing us together, I'm not going in there!"

"What he said, bitch," Megumi pulled an eyelid down and stuck her tongue at the Captain.

Yurika sobbed between moans of hardly restrained pleasure. "I'm going to get revenge on all of you, you dirty... ah... uncooperative... ahhh... treacherous... ahhhhh, Goooooood, yesssssss..."

Then the Admiral reached up and claimed her lips, and all protests were forgotten.

Over at the campfires, Aoi Jun sobbed. "I'll never love again..."

"There, there, there..." Chamo helpfully offered him a bottle. "Sake, Aniki?"

"Idiots," Ruri whispered, warming her small pale hands up near the fire.

* * *

 **Decadent Pirates** \- by Shadow Crystal Mage

The straw hats looked at each other.

"Does anyone know what we're supposed to do?" Zorro asked.

They all shook their heads.

"Hey, those guys have marshmallows!" Luffy pointed. They ran for the campfire.

"Huh, " Chamo said. "Forgot about them..."

Tea threw up her hands. "SCREW IT!" she cried and lunged at Yuuno, gently caressing his face as she took him from behind...

"CHILD MOLESTER!" both Jokers cried. They both drew mallets. ""Here's how we handle that Arkham-style, bitch!"

"My word," Gandalf said. "He really IS the only sane man..."

"Scary thought," Shizuru said. "Pass me a smore?"

* * *

And gradually, what was going on at the campfires became even more interesting than what was going on in the stories themselves ...

* * *

 **Decadent Effect** \- by Radical Taoist

A lilting but accomplished singing voice rang out around one of the campfire.

I am the very model of a refugee fanfiction char  
I saw him writing down that crack and knew there'd be some friction there  
As soon as I could I escaped that fic's madness, and just as well  
Otherwise I probably would have been slash-shipped all to hell

That smut he wrote would make your eyes need radial keratomy  
And some of those acts would not work with my species' anatomy  
All wrapped in more incest than you'd find in European royal lines  
Such fantasies were his depraved, deranged, and plain immoral mind's

That's just not in my character, my species is asexual  
And other refugees like me are fine with the subtextual  
We don't need all that sexing going on in full regalia  
Much less the odd implications about our genitalia

We'd much prefer to be in a story that fits us, if you please  
More time speaking while standing up and less time shouting on our knees  
Most of us have deeper layers which more writers should show to you  
Instead of a single-minded obsessive desire to screw

I meet all of the traits listed in the above depiction there  
I am the very model of a refugee fanfiction char

There was a moment's pause as the other escapees stared at the red-skinned Salarian. Then several of the escapees began to applaud. "Fantastic!" shouted a grinning Gandalf. "That was a fine song from a fine singer."

Mordin gave a bow and a warm smile. "Thank you. Enjoyed composing it. Gilbert and Sullivan full of adaptation opportunities." He inhaled sharply. "Also useful to help relating to rest of you. Illustrates how we're in this together."

Off to the side, the Joker was golf clapping while he spoke to an older man in tactical armor with a discolored right eye and a vicious facial scar. "I still say it's a copout and a half that he cut straight to the campfire scene while ditching the incest," muttered the Clown Prince of Crime, "but better to count my blessings, eh Zaeed?"

The scarred mercenary veteran scowled. "You don't know the goddamn half of it. Mahora Effect is still in its natal stages, so characters from the Mass Effect canon were bleeding through, which is why we're here. Since Shepard's a BioWare character, all the player's choices matter, so the result was a quantum orgy of all Shepard's potential love interests and their immediate relatives."

He shook his head grimly. "I was the only one who made it out alive."

* * *

 **Decadent Pokemon** \- by OverMaster

Jessie was pale like a wax figure as she took her place before the main campfire. Meowth, who sat down next to her, wasn't faring much better.

"I have seen things..." she began, stuttering each syllabe. "Things that took my last shreds of faith in a fair God away..."

"I assume they took your partner away, too, Nee-chan?" Chamo asked.

Jessie gave the weird talking Pokemon weasel a haunted look and nodded. "It all started when his rich, rich parents came out of nowhere and invited us to a party at their manor. He wanted to refuse, but we hadn't eaten in days, so I said we'd go. My worst mistake ever..."

"Da twerps were dere, too..." Meowth took over the narration. "All of 'em. Ash was... wit' his Mum, an' da tomboy wit' her sisters, an' dat May chick wit' her annoying little brother an' parents, an' Brock wit' his parents, an' all dose siblings... ALL DOSE SIBLINGS...!" he shrieked.

"Well, can't really blame him there, " Chamo admitted. "I mean, haven't you ever seen his Mom?"

The Joker just punted him dangerously close to the fire.

"And ALL OF THE JOYS! IN A DAISY CHAIN!" Jessie screamed, pulling on her hair. "It was like watching an unending bizarre string of... SERIOUSLY, THEY WENT THREE TIMES AROUND THE GODDAMN HOUSE! And then the Jennys started doing it too!"

"My word!" Alfred Pennyworth gasped.

Pikachu, sporting a traumatized face of his own, dragged his tiny feet into the camp and tossed himself onto Jessie's lap.

"Pika Pika Pika Pi. Pika Pika Pi Pi Pika Pikachu Pika Pi. Pika Pikachu."

"He sez he's surrenderin'. He lost all will ta fight back after watchin' Gary and Perfessor Oak... No, I can't bring myself ta say it!" Meowth translated before melting in tears.

"There, there..." Jessie rocked Pikachu back and forth in her embrace.

"I may be a teasing, vain, sexually promiscuous, degenerate and petty person, but there are some lines I won't cross!" Harley huffed indignantly.

Drew served himself a cup of coffee from a thermos, with hands that valiantly tried not to shake. "So... is there a psychiatrist anywhere in here? I think I'm going to need a few therapy sessions."

* * *

 **Decadent Disney** \- by Shadow Crystal Mage

"Okay, now it's just getting ridiculous, " the Joker said as Doctor Draken, Perry the Platypus, Mr. Mosby, Gantu, Miranda, and Launchpad McQuack stepped up to the fire.

"The horror..." the Hotel Manager whispered as SCM made room. "The horror..."

"Mickey and Minnie WERE related, " Launchpad said, just as dazed. "They're ALL really related. The ducks... THE DUCKS!"

"It's been said before, but even evil has standards!" Drakken cried. "Ooh, marshmallows! Do you have any coco moo?"

"Help..."

They all turned to see Kevin Levin coming up the hill, Numbuh 1, Mojo Jojo, I Am Weasel, Flem and Earl, and Grim coming up the hill.

"I don't want to talk about it, " the Bleedman-drawn Jamaican skeleton said. "Ooh, chocolate!"

"Well, it was already practical text anyway, " SCM said.

"It's moving..." Joker said. "Next up, Nickelodeon."

A few minutes later, Sam came up the hill, with others trailing behind. "I don't want to talk about it, " she growled. "Stupid sexy loli opposite sex clone... Stupid sexy older sister..."

Gandalf considered. "We'll need more campfires..."

* * *

 **De(c)ad(ent) or Alive** \- by Darkenning

"Youngsters nowadays," Helena sighed, lying flat on her back.

"Wha- what are you talking about, " Hayate panted, gathering his strength back up. "They're not that much younger than we are. And anyway, it's not like we've any right to talk. We're going along with it, after all."

"Yes, but it's the meme, you know. And it was your sister's idea," the DOAtech heiress replied.

"Yes, big shock, I know. Anyway, yours was very quick to support it!" the ninja countered.

Resting between them, a lazy smile on his face, Gen Fu hummed. "Well. If there's something my years of martial arts pracice have taught me, it's that there's no low we humans won't sink down to. But it's better to take it in stride. Ready, Mei Lin?"

The girl nodded, grabbing his sides with some residual shyness. "Y-Yes, grandfather! Are you ?"

Kokoro giggled, straddling her gulping half-sister. "He looks that way from here! Hey, Kasumi-saaaan! We trade places after this, don't we?"

"Sounds good, " Kasumi smiled, getting herself comfortable over Hayate's lower body. "But what about Mei Lin-chan?"

Mei-Lin already was huffing, bouncing back and forth in a steady rhythm, grabbing onto her grandfather's surprisingly hard pecs, her eyes nearly rolling back into her head. "Don't ... worry about me. I think ... I'll go for a ... repeat with Grandfather ... right after this ..."

"That's my little girl," Gen Fu moaned, running a hand through her hair, then pulling on it, making her moan.

Ayane finished stripping down and sighed while sitting on Hayate's face. "Why, why, why couldn't the author have gone with the slightly less sickening choice of Bass and Tina for the third couple, " she mused regretfully, even as his tongue began to caress her private folds, making her skin crawl all over.

But then Kasumi leaned ahead and claimed her lips, and all protests were forgotten. But never forgiven, since this is Ayame we're talking about here.

At the campfire - campfires, now - those members of the Dead or Alive cast who had no siblings or parents had shown up to join in the group commisserating.

"That bitch!" Christie sobbed as Shizuru, momentarily pulled from her own misery, attempted to comfort her. "I can't believe she's doing this to me."

"Ah know, it can hard when your love rejects you," Shizuru empathized.

"I don't love her! I just want to complete my contract, that's all! I've been loved by many many lovers but I've never been in love, never never loved anyone!" Christie snapped.

"Sweetie, please, stop singing, or people're gonna think you're that movie version of you. But, look, you should just " Her patient words of advice were interrupted by a cell phone playing "Shining Days". "I should really get that changed, " Shizuru murmured as she pulled it out and checked her text.

And then she smiled, coldly. And got up and started walking down the hill.

"Hey, where are you going?" Christie asked, startled to see the change in her demeanor.

"I got casted for the sequel!" she said, not looking back as she flicked the bic in their direction. "Later, losers!"

* * *

And so it went. They're probably still out there, sitting around the campfires, eating smores and not having sex. I'm sure this is someone's idea of fun.

But what's this about a sequel? Well, don't hold your breath, but yes, there's a sequel to Decadent Habits, and yes, it's be a mostly Mai-HiME story, with the action transferred to Mahora and a few Negima characters (and others) showing up. There's a hint of it in the final chapter. I may repost it here as well.


End file.
